The Risen
by Vevian
Summary: The Forsaken led by Sylvanas seek vengeance against a world that shuns them and the Lich King. One newly risen mage must make her way through her new unlife and seek her own vengeance.
1. Intro

**Intro**

The ghoul was crouched low in the woods outside of the small town. Her breath was heavy as she swayed in anticipation. This is where the voice had driven her along with what looked like hundreds of others. It was maddening, that voice. A constant jumble of disconnected and angry thoughts which whispered into her mind. She thought she could see things out of the corner of her eye sometimes: Great pyramids floating in the sky. Spiders as large a small cottage. Vast frozen wastelands covered with soldiers and always it felt as though there was someone just over her shoulder.

They hid in these woods, drooling and panting. Those around her occasionally belched up great globs of thick green fluid along the forest floor. She distantly felt a pain in her gut and retched up a bit of the bright green mess as well. It splashed onto the bush she hid near and it began to smoke. A white mist rose from the places where the fluid had touched the plant and moments later it began to wilt. The bush shriveled and died in a matter of minutes as she gasped for air.

She waited crouched and ready to spring on the town her muscles thrumming in her legs. There had been a time before this, when she hadn't been killing driven by a voice in her mind. She tried to think of her family, her country, when a blinding white pain swept across her mind. She screamed silently inside her own head. Suddenly from the center of her head came the voice. "Go now. Kill."

She didn't want to kill the people in this town, she didn't even know them but her body went into action immediately. She leapt into a sprint her knees cracking loudly and rushed through the trees and across the open field between her and the small town. The others around her were running out as well, drooling mindlessly and gnashing their teeth. She looked around at those around her, she could at least do that much she noticed. Men and women of all ages and dress, wide eyed and frothing mad. Many were missing appendages, an arm here, a leg there. Those without two legs ran on all three of their remaining limbs keeping pace with the others undeterred by their handicaps.

She heard a horn sound from the town. The sounds of terrified rushing people came then, as women and children were locked into houses. Men with fire and swords rushed from the town to meet them. She welcomed their resistance. They lined up between herself and the town and began shouting at one another making ready for her fury. Her jaw swung wide and her body let loose an inhumane roar.

"Right." said the voice in the center of her mind. Her body bared right at a frightening pace, kicking up dirt and grass as she dug her hands and feet into the ground for traction. Others followed her on this new course but, the majority it seemed, still rushed head on towards the defenders.

Her body ran tirelessly in that direction until the voice spoke again. "To the town. Kill the women and children." She bolted left towards the town. The woman and the children? This was no war, it was a slaughter. The sound of fighting came from the side of the town that faced the woods but this side was quiet and deserted. They approached the town in a group and then she split off as the voice commanded: "That house."

She had no idea what house it was referring to but it seemed her body knew, as it instantly changed course and rushed towards a two story house to her left. She ran full tilt at a first story window of the house. She was going too fast, she'd hit the wall at this rate. She tried to slow down but her legs wouldn't listen, they only pounded relentlessly and drove her towards the window. Her body jumped then and drove her through the window landing sprawled on the wooden floor of the house. Glass tinkled as it fell all around her. She got to her feat and her head snapped left then right. She knew there were people here, she could smell them. Their fear and stinking living bodies permeated the air.

She listened for a moment standing very still and heaving her chest as she took in great rattling gasps of air. She heard nothing and then, thunk. A knock on the second floor. She growled and rushed up the wooden staircase on all fours launching her body four or five steps at a time. She skidded to a halt at the top and cocked her head and listened again. A soft sound from behind the door on her right. Crying? No. Sobbing, that was the word for it she thought as her body threw itself at the door. Not quite weeping not quite sniffling. Her body pounded into the door again. It splintered slightly and bent in it's frame. This was a fair home she saw as her body pounded furiously at the door. Again she was smashed into the door. It split at the center and she grabbed the lower half and tore it away with a splintery crack.

She heard the sound was louder now as she crawled on all fours and skittered under what remained of the door. A child crying. She heard it clearly along with the pounding heartbeats of three, no four people. Their smell was strong here, piss yellow with fear. Her body's drive to kill and feed overrode her mind's emotion and will. She descended fully into the beast her body had become. She gasped for air and stood still again listening hard, they knew she was here. They'd try to be quiet but she'd find them. Rustling from the wardrobe in the corner. She bolted over to the large wooden doors and ripped one off. It fell to the floor with a thud and the woman inside shrieked. She screamed back at her a great roar that flecked the woman's face with drool. She was saying something, screaming it and holding up her hands in a warding gesture. The ghoul reached out and grabbed the woman's shoulders and brought the woman face towards her own.

She buried her jaws in the woman's neck bringing up a great gush of blood into her mouth. It tasted wonderful. The woman flailed weakly at her with her arms as she began to die. She drew her head back and then took another enormous bite out of the woman's chest tearing into her right breast. The heart, that's what she wanted. That was where the soul was, wasn't it?

"Mommy!"

She snapped her head away from the woman's dying heart spraying blood and taking part of the blouse with her. The voice had come from further inside the wardrobe. She thrust her head inside and peered around. Two children, a boy and a girl were curled in the corner. The shook as they looked up at her, they had both wet themselves. The acrid stench of their urine complimented the smell of their fear quite nicely. The ghoul dropped the woman and reached out for the boy. He tried to draw back further into the corner but there was no where left to go. "No!" He shouted as tears ran from his eyes.

"Yesssss." the ghoul growled as she reached for his arm. She grabbed hold of it with her claw-like hand and pulled. Perhaps too hard she thought as the child's arm came free of it's socket and he was drawn out of his hiding place. She held him up by his now distended arm and looked at him kicking and screaming. What a fine boy. His sister yelled something from the wardrobe. Paying her no mind the ghoul lurched her head forward and bit the boy in the midsection. The blood was there again in her throat, it tasted even better than the woman's. The boy bled out quickly and she dropped his corpse to the floor.

She was turning for the girl when she heard foot steps behind her. She reached out and grasped at the air behind her. She caught the girl by her long blonde hair. The girl screamed again and bolted for the door. A great chunk of hair came loose from her head with a sick shredding sound and she sprawled forward onto the floor. She fumbled to get up as the ghoul bared down on her. She scrambled backwards on her rear until she hit the wall. Thud. No where left to go.

The ghoul advanced slowly. The girls tear filled eyes dashed past her to stare at something behind her. The ghoul turned quickly and saw what the girl was looking at, a locker at the foot of the bed. Turning back the ghoul took the last step towards the girl and grabbed her by the throat. The girl wheezed and her eyes bulged as the ghoul's clawed hand bore down on her throat. The girl shook spastically and reached her tiny hand towards her neck. It never made it there. She went limp as the life left her body.

The ghoul dropped the girl and turned to the footlocker. What was so important that the girl would be more concerned for it than her own life? She'd find out. She went to open the locker and found her hands to clumsy for the job. She raised her arms above her head and brought them down with a crash atop the locker. It shook and a baby cried from inside. Ah, that's what she'd been afraid for. A baby would make a fine meal she supposed and bashed the locker again and again.

Voices came from outside then: Men. She snapped her head towards the stairs and growled. This was her meal she thought, they'd not have it. She grabbed the ring on the side of the foot locker and dragged it behind her as she bolted down the stairs. It knocked each stair and the baby thumped and squealed inside. She reached the bottom of the stairs and listened again. Yes, there were men all right, at least six or seven of them. She'd never survive them but her body remained motionless. It wanted to kill these men as well, it seemed as though it's thirst for blood would never be sated.

"Now!" yelled the men behind the door and it gave in with a crash. A holy man in full armor stepped in. The ghoul took a step back hissing. She'd seen this man before in her other life. Uther the paladin. Uther the Lightbringer. A powerful man wielding the Light with all it's glory. His wide plate-sheathed shoulders crested the doors and he brought his hammer to bear.

"Monster!" He shouted his grey hair falling across his face. The ghoul postured and let go the locker. The hiss her body let out was not enough to cover the sound of the child crying out in surprise as the trunk dropped to the floor. The baby cried out again terrified in the dark. Uther's face lit up in surprise. He stood a moment not quite sure what he had just heard. He realized what was happening then and his brow furrowed in rage.

"Foul abomination! I'd not let you claim another!" He shouted, his voiced deep and powerful. He rushed towards her then. She didn't even have a chance to move before he had cleared the distance between them and struck her with the hammer. It burned her flesh and she flew across the room smashing against the wall. Her body convulsed and attempted to get up. She didn't want to fight anymore, she wanted to be done. Still her body tried to get up, to lunge at the holy man. He stepped to the trunk and brought his hand to the lock. He spoke words which hurt the ghoul to even hear and the lock sprung open with a golden light. The baby inside cried out as the light hit it's eyes and Uther reached down. "There child, you are safe now." He said and cradled the baby to his armored chest.

He looked then at the ghoul his mouth turned down in a hard frown beneath his beard. "Now monster. You'll meet your fate." He said, rage boiling under his cold words. He stepped to her and her body lashed out at him from the ground. He stomped on her arm and pinned it to the rough wood. He holstered his hammer slowly then and reached for the book that hung at his thigh. He flipped it open and scanned down a page. He found what he was looking for and snapped the book shut.

He let the book drop and the chains that held it jingled as it fell to his thigh again. "By the power of the Light I banish you from this land." He said to her and brought his hand up his first two fingers extended. It glowed bright with the golden light. He held it there like a beacon and it's radiance fell down on her. Every part of her was on fire now, her body cringed and pulled at the arm which he held in place. "Be gone, ye spoiled! Ye lost! Let your soul be tossed to the Nether and left there, forsaken by all!" He boomed and brought his hand down. There was a flash of golden light, a burning in the very pits of her ravaged soul and then it departed. The ghoul was stilled.

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[Disclaimer] I don't own Warcraft, World of Warcraft or any of the characters. It would be fruitless to sue me anyway, I have less money then you pay your lawyers on retainer.

Author Notes:I greatly apriciate any feedback. I've done my best to weed out the spelling, grammatical and lore based errors but I have no disillusions of perfection. If you find anything please tell me.


	2. Chapter 1: Embrace of the Banshee Queen

**Embrace of the Banshee Queen**

Darkness then. A blessed release from the pain of her new unlife. Vevian cherished the first few moments of her time alone in that soundless, sightless world as she turned slowly gazing at the lovely void. The voice that drove her to the brink of madness had departed, she had a feeling it was gone for good. She harbored no ill will for the paladin that struck her down. He'd cleared her of the voice and for that she was grateful. She wondered how long she'd been under it's spell and couldn't remember.

Time had no meaning here however for there was nothing to judge it's passage. Her past actions, her horrible acts of betrayal were of no consequence, all her countrymen were dead. Even if they weren't, they could not reach her here. However these thoughts could not lessened the sorrow she felt when she realized she was alone. Not just for the night, not for a season, but forever. Forever and ever, doomed to drift out of time and space with nothing but her thoughts and shame.

"I don't want to be alone!" she shouted suddenly. "I don't want to be here!" She had no idea who she was yelling at or too but she couldn't help herself.

She expected no reply yet a voice called from beyond the dark in a soft yet hard voice, "Come to me then."

"Who are you?" she whispered in a barely audible voice for she feared the power of any intelligence that could reach her here.

"A queen among the damned. A giver of second chances to our kind and an enabler of vengeance." The voice called it's hard tone mingled with sadness and longing.

"Will I live again?" Vevian inquired hopefully. Second chances the voice had said.

"You won't live as you've know, but you will walk the earth again." The voice said.

The thought of another unlife, to become again a shambling corpse driven by some malevolent will across the hills of her birthplace filled her with dread. She suddenly wanted the voice to go away, she wanted to be alone again despite her earlier protests. She wanted to be driven mad by her own mind in solitude rather than rot in Azeroth under the control of yet another unseen force.

"Go away!" she shouted "I don't want to go back! Not like that!".

A pause. The voice then spoke in a soothing and understanding tone, "No child, you misunderstand me. I offer an unlife of choice, free of the Lich King's control. Should you return with me you will walk the earth of your own accord. No longer will your mind be bound to the will of another. Your thoughts and actions will be your own."

Vevian pondered what she had just heard. Was it possible to live an unlife of choice? Could she trust this voice? Could she even trust her own thoughts? Was this all merely some illusion created by her original death? Even if it was, this place was real enough to drive her mad. Centuries of mind games with yourself tended to do that.

"Why are you choosing me?" Vevian called to the voice.

"Because you were not given a choice. None of us were. We were all thrust into the ranks of the Lich King's army to dance to the tune of his war. Mindless puppets with our consciousness in tow, dragged behind like so much unwanted rubbish. We were wronged and I seek to make it right." The pain and anger in the voice were intense, genuine.

"Will it hurt?" Vevian asked already having resigned herself to this voice's cause. She HAD been wronged. She WAS angry and above all else, she wanted revenge. If this voice could make good on it's promises she would follow.

The voice chuckled lightly. "Most likely child." A pause, then, "You would seek to exact your justice on those who made you so?"

"Yes." she said into the black. The cold dark listened in stoic silence. "I'd make them pay for every pound of flesh and then thrice more."

"Very well, brace yourself my child. You might be a bit ... stiff."

Vevian closed her eyes and smiled lightly.

MY child the voice had said. It felt good to hear that again.


	3. Chapter 2: A proper Rebirth

**A proper Rebirth**

Vevian opened her eyes and coughed violently. Dust flew from her mouth in great plumes as life was forced back into her body. All of her muscles contracted violently and she writhed and shook. The pain was all consuming, every nerve alight with renewed energy. Joints popped and cracked, organs convulsed and her heart pounded dirt through her veins. Her spasms pushed her against the corpses around her. A great bloody pile of men, women and children. She was buried in them, she was suffocating in their rot and filth. She tried to cry out again but another burst of dry dust was all she could manage. She needed to get out of here. She needed to get away from the putrescence and the touch of cold limp bodies. She grabbed the arm of a woman on top of her and shoved. The body toppled over onto the side of the pile and rolled down the sizable slope landing face up, eyes staring vacantly at the ceiling of the crypt. Vevian brought her up hands again to raise herself up out of the cadavers and got a proper look at them. Claws. Her fingers were at least eight inches long from the knuckle and sharpened to points at the end. God what had she become?

She managed to get her upper body out of the pile before the pain came again. Great tidal waves of lightning rushed through her nerves and she began to seize. Black spots clouded then erased her vision as she toppled over sideways and her naked lower half slipped from beneath the cadavers slick with blood and filth. Rolling as the woman before her down the side of the pile she twitched and silently screamed bits of her lungs into the air. Landing face down at the bottom she opened her eyes only to see the face of the woman she had just relocated. The woman's glassed eyes reflected her own glowing sockets. She screamed, a proper scream this time and not just one of those dust clouds. She pulled her arms up and pushed off the woman's bear chest to get away. One of her breasts deflated as the force of Vevian's frantic blow released it's stuffing of blood and decaying fat. Loosing her balance she fell forward into the bloody stinking mess. Vevian shrieked again and rolled off the dead woman. She landed roughly on her rump working her legs furiously to scuttle herself backwards away from the morbid pile. Her long nails skittered and clicked on the wet stone floor.

She pressed herself against the wall, brought up her knees and grabbed her legs. She shook as she cried in terror and pain rocking against the wall like a child. She stayed that way for quite some time before she could bring her face up and look around at what she had returned to.

She saw she was in a tomb of sorts. No respectable person would have been buried here but the walls were stone and not dirt, she supposed that was something. In the center of the room was the pile. The pile of her rebirth she guessed, a great rotting womb for her to crawl kicking and screaming from. She felt a wetness run down her face and raised her hand to wipe it away. Her long pointed nails pricked at her face and she drew her hand back with a rattling gasp.

Again she gazed in horror at her hands, not quite claws she realized, but certainly dangerous. "You'll put your eye out with those!" her mother used to yell on many occasions. Mind the lessons of your elders they say, she guessed that applied even in your third incarnation. She went slower this time, using the back of her fingers to wipe at her face. She brought it back and looked at a dark green oil. Wiping off the hand on her bare thigh she went back with both hands this time wiping her cheeks just below he eyes. They both came back with the oily green fluid, yet the previous hand had less. Tears? She supposed anything was possible.

She looked around past the pile and noticed a stairwell with a faint light at the top: a way out. She took a final look at her hands and she noticed they were glowing. No, they were receiving the light not giving it off. Not the light from the stairwell, that light was a white of the sun. Her hands were covered with a faint yellow light. She moved her hands closer to her face and the light grew brighter, more defined. Her eyes were glowing she realized. This was just as disturbing as her claws but this wasn't the place to play doctor. She climbed carefully to her feet and stood there naked, legs spread far apart to balance herself. She looked down at her shaking legs and then to the stairs. She didn't think she could get far in this state but she had to try to go somewhere. To the voice that saved her first, then to the cursed necromancer with his narrow face and wide smile. She took a lurching step forward and fell to her knees. Baby steps then. Fitting for the newly born and newly risen she thought. She got precariously to her feet again and took a small, careful step. She didn't fall this time. Not much, but any step towards leaving this horrible place was a step in the right direction.

As she made her way past the pile she took a look at the faces. Blank eyes and empty sockets stared back at her from the mound of flesh. No one she knew but these were definitely her countrymen. Salt of the earth farmers and their families stacked like so much refuse. There would be blood for this. At last her tedious trek across the dank room was complete. She spared not a backwards glance for the tomb. Best to be shed of the place. Reaching out and bracing herself against the coarse, moist stone of the stairwell she dragged herself up the flight of steps. She rounded the corner and blinked at the sunlight pouring in through the open door of the tomb. Another flight of steps and she was in the entrance way. Standing naked, smothered in moist earth, flesh and filth for all the world to see.

However there was no world, and no one to see. There was only a smoldering darkened wasteland that was once her homeland. The grass withered and the trees rotted from within. The sky was grey with smoke and cloud. She looked around for anything, anything at all and saw nothing. Naught but a tomb in the middle of nowhere, and she it's babe. The pain came again. Not like the last time but still enough to bring her to her knees and make her cry out into the lifeless woods. The pain sharpened then and found it's way to her inner most reaches. She fell on her side and passed out there. Alone again in the dark.


	4. Chapter 3: Forsaken duties

**Forsaken duties**

"Damn wolves!" Mordo shouted into the woods. He grimaced, his white skin stretching across his boney face. His glowing eyes narrowed in pain, his leg was acting up again, always the damn leg. But he was luckier than most. Many had risen to find themselves unable to move, speak or see. Some awoke in a frenzy and had to be put down. Other's still never woke at all and were burned in mass graves. Aye, one of the lucky ones he was, fit for the Dark Lady's work and he'd go about it faster if it wasn't for the twice damned wolves.

He raised his lantern above his head and peered into the line of trees between him and Deathknell. Aye there they were, just as neat as you please. Sitting all in a row like some kind of damned wolf battalion. He'd have a hell of a time getting back if a guard missed his rounds through this neck of the woods. "All in due time my fanged menaces, you'll get yours." he grunted as he turned to head towards the crypt. Many a body to go through today, more still tomorrow, and the day after, and the after. On and on it went. The dead flowed like water in this part of the world. Hard times for some, but not an undertaker.

Mordo limped his way towards the tomb, lantern jingling and clanking. He took a glance at the cloudy sky and watched for a glimpse of the sun. It was far past noon - he was later than usual. "They aren't going anywhere I suppose." He chuckled to himself. There had been occasions when some had risen before there time, almost all of them mad as hatters. He lurched his way to the front gate of the cemetery and pushed it open. It swung wide with a metallic squeal, as if to protest it's awakening. He stepped inside and shut it behind him.

There was nothing in the graveyard but dense trees and a single tomb. The tomb sat on a high hill in the center of the cemetery. It was the oddest graveyard he'd ever had the pleasure of working in, yet he was quite sure it's residence didn't concern themselves left ways or right ways with it's appearance. He shuffled through the trees and into the clearing where the tomb lay.

He breached the line of trees and saw a young woman lying dead in front of the entrance to the tomb. He hastened his walk and his leg stung him something fierce. No matter though, this was something interesting. The pain could wait - it wasn't leaving anytime soon. He made his way over to the girl and stood over her. Her skin was pale green in the cloudy daylight, maybe a bit o' blue as well he thought. She was covered in all manner of vile things, but such was to be expected of the risen dead wasn't it? She lay naked on the stone in front of the entrance on her side. Mordo bent with a groan and knelt beside her.

"Hey. Hey dead weight! Wake up!," he growled. She didn't so much as stir. He put his hands on his hips, frustrated. He had work to do damn it, important work. Mulling over the dead, scavenging and burning. Those were things which entertained him to no end, not little girls with newly forged ugly duckling complexes. His time was short for those such as she - freshly risen and full of questions. "Oh! How did I get here?" "Where's my family?" "Am I dead?" "Who are you?" All senseless questions from empty minded fools turned undead, and patience was certainly not his virtue when it came to fools.

He grinned and hit the girl on the head with his lantern. There was a loud clack as the ancient lantern smashed against his latest victim's head. He smiled wide revealing all 5 of his teeth. "There ye are, wide awake now are we?" The young girl stirred and opened her eyes. The yellow glow of the ghostlights in her sockets flashed as she became fully awakened. She sat bolt upright in a flash and Mordo fell over backwards and his lantern hit the dirt and went out with a clank. "Look what ye done you foolish girl! Nocked over an old man in your careless haste."

She looked slowly and calmly at him blue-green skin smooth and dirty in the daylight. "I'm sorry" she said softly, "I just had a bit of a fright.".

"You've gone and given it to me now you stupid sow! Blew me right over with it so you did." Mordo yelled at her. She said nothing.

She stood slowly then, blank faced and looked down at Mordo. "Where can I find Her?" she asked him pointedly.

"Ahhh, it's the Dark Lady you speak of. She who freed us from the Lich King." Mordo moaned as he hauled himself up off the ground. He began dusting himself off with his free hand as he reached for his lantern. "You've done put out my light girl, how am I to lead you to town to be accounted for if I can't see in the woods?".

The girl looked at him, anger beginning to touch her pretty face. "Where, can I find her. Tell me.".

Mordo looked her up and down for the first time now as she stood there. A pretty girl of about 25 he would say, tight skin and curves in all the right places. Of course death has a way of taking a bit of meat off the bones but for her if it had done anything it had made her more beautiful. Her hair stuck out short and swept back from her head, blue-green like her skin. She stood perfectly still looking at him expecting an answer and all he could do was wish his loin serpent still had some bite to it.

Her brow creased. She gave him a stern look and said sarcastically, "Is there something I can help you with?".

Mordo came to himself again and said "Aye, ye can fetch me some sticks to light my lantern with.".

Her glowing eyes widened and her mouth fell open a bit. She became angry and shouted "I asked you where I can find the Dark Lady now will you tell me or not! I need to find her!".

Mordo taken aback by her anger spat, "The Banshee Queen has better to do than see the likes of you, freshly risen and uncounted. I could just burn you right now and no one would be the wiser girl.".

"We'll see about that." she said and took a step back facing him. She held out her hand towards him and held her palm up. Her eyes flashed brighter as she glanced at her hand and it filled with bright orange fire. Mordo took two steps back and held his hands up.

"Aye! Aye! I'll take you too her!" he shouted. She raised her blazing hand menacingly and he was sure he was about to receive the Final Death at the hands of the risen mage. Then her face cleared and the fire in her hand died. She relaxed visibly and closed her eyes. When she opened them their glow had lessened considerably.

"I'm sorry... It's just... I DIED you understand. I need to speak with the Dark Lady, she spoke to me in my death. I hope I haven't offended you." she folded her hands in front of her naked crotch and bowed slightly. A custom for well learned folk and nobles.

"Aye, that ye did. But I returned the favor so I figure we're even." and he bent his knees and swept his arm before himself in a bow. He could be just as classy as the next guy he supposed and he wasn't about to be outclassed by this haughty, not to mention naked, young girl.

She extended her hand to him and said "Shall we start out on the right foot?".

He grasped her hand and shook it lightly, "Aye, right foots the best foot they say. Though mine hasn't faired too well." He patted his right thigh and smiled.

She smiled politely back and said, "Can I see your lantern for a moment?"

"Sure, yet I don't have any matches ye understand. Such is an old fool to leave the essentials." Mordo said frustrated handing the lantern out to her.

She just smiled a bit wider and took the lantern from his hand, "I can do a bit better than matches as you've seen.". Her eyes started to glow brighter again as she placed her finger inside the lantern.

"Hold on now missy, I need that lantern! Don't go sending it to the clearing before it's time!." Mordo reached out for the lantern. His concern was genuine and not misplaced. Young mages such as this rarely had the skill to stop from setting themselves on fire much less light candles with their fingers.

The girl just held the lantern away from him and her face split into a grin. "Dear too you is it?" she asked.

"Nay, but it keeps the wolves away for the trek home. So... I guess. Aye! 'Tis dear to me like my life! If you'd have any care for yours you'd unhand it!." Mordo flailed for the lantern again but the girl just laughed and moved it further out of his reach.

Her eyes glowed brighter still and a small flame leapt from the tip of her long sharp finger setting the wick alight. "There, no harm no foul friend." She handed the lantern back smiling widely with a laugh in her eyes.

Mordo grabbed the lantern and cradled it lightly with his other hand. "Foolish girl, you could have wrecked the poor thing."

The girl raised an eyebrow and this time the laugh that was building in her eyes flew from her mouth. A sweet, intoxicating sound. Mordo didn't care if it was at his expense, he liked that laugh.

"Now that we're set for the trek home, might I ask your name fair lass? For I'd like to know who's gone from dead to enemy to friend in a single encounter." Mordo said eyeing her humorously.

"My name is Vevian, what might yours be?" She said politely that laugh still on her voice and in her eyes.

"Mordo, Undertaker Mordo if it suits you." He said bowing again.

Vevian clapped her hands smiling, "Aye Undertaker. It suits me just fine."


	5. Chapter 4: A walk in the woods

**A walk in the woods**

They walked in silence through the thick trees in the cemetery and reached the gate. Beyond the gate Vevian saw green grass and trees. "I had given up hope for my homeland, I see it still lives." She commented.

"Aye, a bit at least." He gestured with his free hand at the tree line in front of them. "Beyond this bit of wood lies DeathKnell, where ye will be counted and sent on your way. Beyond that lies Brill and still further is the heart of the Forsaken empire, Undercity. That is where the Dark Lady resides, if she's not out that is." He smiled and gave Vevian a wink. He'd never approved of magic, or the damned souls who twisted it to their will but there was something about this one. She seemed so at ease with herself and her power not to mention her body. She was still naked.

Mordo started and said "Oh lords, where are my manners? Nay! Where is my decency?" He took off his outer robe and gave it to Vevian. He grinned wickedly and said "You'd catch your death in this weather.". "Let's have you put that on for starters, can't have a respectable mage walking into town to be counted naked as she fell from her mother."

"My mother was a pile of dead men." Vevian said seriously and took the robe. She put it on and wrapped her arms around her waste to keep it shut. "Shall we?"

"Aye, trek on." Mordo agreed.

The woods were easy going. No sign of the wolves the old man had been so adamant about. The sky filled with even more clouds and the sun was almost entirely shut out as it began to rain. It was nearing Hallow's End when she had been killed in her hometown. There is no way she should be out in nothing but an undertaker's over cloak. She SHOULD be freezing, should be shivering but she wasn't. She told the old man she had to pass water and he looked at her as if she was simple. He just stood there and shook his head and looked off toward Deathknell.

She went behind a thicket of bushes and took off the robe. She looked herself up and down as best she could. Without a mirror this was a pain but it must be done. She ran her hands up and down her legs, arms and midsection. Her skin an muscles felt fine although she did think she was missing some weight around her hips and breasts. "Not the worst thing to ever happen to a young lady." she thought and focused her search a bit lower. She lowered her hand to her crotch and felt herself there lightly. "Merely making sure the goods are all still there." she reasoned. She felt nothing wrong with her private place but then again she also didn't feel anything at all. She gasped lightly and looked around to see if the old man was watching her, he wasn't. "I never planned on having children but this is unacceptable." she thought. This wasn't something to be worried about in the larger scheme of things, but this definitely took precedence over this "Counting" the old man kept going on about. She looked around again to make sure he wasn't looking and went to slip a finger inside her fold. She stopped and stared at her hand.

The pointy razors that served as her hands now would not be pleasant down there. Even if she couldn't feel it they would still do damage. This is a test that would have to wait. She put her robe back on and went back to Mordo.

"Ye pass yer water then?" Mordo said with a laugh in his voice.

"You know I didn't. I don't have to anymore do I?" she replied sourly.

"Nay, ye don't. Though ye'd never believe me if I told ye. Ye'd still try anyway I suppose." he said with a knowing smile.

"Anything else I should know about my new body?" She asked haughtily. Gods, this was like being a teenager all over again. "What does this do mother?" "I do WHAT for three to six days?!" "Boys have a WHAT?".

Mordo laughed loudly and not too kindly. "Ye'll find out on yer own, we did and we've faired just fine." he grinned and started walking towards Deathknell.

There was little talk between them for awhile. She didn't much care for him but she figured it best not to make him an enemy. Every time she opened her mouth to him she either amused or offended him. She had no way of telling which the next question she had would do so she resigned herself to silence. Always the diplomat she'd been. Always building alliances and tearing down walls. A tiresome job for some but for her it came easy. She had a way with people. Culture or race didn't matter, everyone had something in common. You merely had to find what that thing was.

"We're nearing Deathknell now lass." Mordo said slowing his gate slightly. "I'm too take any who rise from their sleep to Sarvis." he explained. She only nodded.

He went on, "Ye are to be counted. That is to say made a proper member of the Forsaken should ye choose.". She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Ah. Right." he said, "'Like a newborn lamb you're to treat them' Sarvis said." Of course she knew nothing he thought, her head was filled with dust. He cleared his throat with a rasp and stood a bit straighter. "The Forsaken are those who'd be loyal to the Dark Lady ye'd understand. Sylvanas Windrunner is her name and she's just about the greatest thing to happen to any of us." He smiled when he said her name, like it somehow comforted him just to hear it.

"Now, she's brought us all back for a reason and when ye've been counted yer abilities and worthiness will be determined. Should ye prove yourself fit for combat ye'll be placed in with the Deathgaurd's lot. They defend the Queen's lands and dismember those who would break her decrees ye understand." He looked her up and down again, scrutinizing her. "Have ye ever seen combat missy? Spilled another's blood?"

"Not before I was turned." she said looking at the ground beneath her feet shuffling them slightly. She tried to block out the things she had done, the faces she'd ripped and torn but she could not.

"Aye, figured as much by looking at ye." he said nodding. "Ye'll not be joining that band of thugs I reckon." he tapped his foot and looked down absently, clearly deep in thought. "You're strong with magics so I'd say... bit of a show off too." he said contemptuously.

She said nothing and merely looked at him.

"Aye. You're special girl there's no arguing it. Most loose their magic when they are turned. Forced to learn other ways to be useful to the Queen. Yours however seems to have carried on through yer death." he brought his hand to his face and tapped his chin contemplatively.

Vevian smiled. She liked being special and she'd had plenty of opportunities to be so through her earlier life.

As a child they said she held great promise to be a master mage and they had taken her to Dalaran. She had been evaluated ("counted" if you like) there and found to be fit for training. She had been in the middle of her first year of that training when the towers had fallen.

She had been standing in the courtyard of the Kirin Tor when she heard a great crack and had turned around to see the largest of Dalarn's magical towers crumble to pieces. Men and women scattered. Mages attempted to erect arcane force fields about themselves and others. The strongest of these survived while the weaker were crushed under the relentless tide of stone. She had spied one panicked class mate frantically shouting spells and waving his arms at passers by apparently attempting to shield them as his teachers were doing. He'd only succeeded in cleaving several merchants in half with his hasty and inaccurate spells.

"Shut him up!" screamed a elderly mage with a beard. A younger elf turned swiftly pointing at the boy and muttered something harsh and quick under his breath. The boy grabbed his throat and screamed silently as his face turned red. He fell to his knees clawing at his throat weakly. His lips began to turn blue as his face turned white and his eyes rolled back into his head. He fell backwards over his knees and lay there motionless, crotch thrust into the air. The elderly mage then pointed to her and...

"Stop smiling you fool! I said special not lucky!" he shook her out of her memory with his rattling voice. "Ye'll be sent to the front lines! Sent to where the horrors of the Lich King and the Burning Legion sit to plot their attack!" he shouted. "Ye'll be killed for certain."

"I'd not deny the Dark Lady my life if that is what she desires." Vevian said calmly looking Mordo in the eye. What she said was true, she felt no fear at her coming death (for it was coming she knew, she'd had two before). Everyone died, just some more than others and she seemed destined for more than her fair share.

"Ye'd give your life so willingly for one you'd naught even met?" Mordo asked with his eyebrow raised.

"Yes. Or Aye if you'd like it better." She said, her face stolid.

"Then I'd need tell ye no more. For nothing I'd say would change yer mind. I see that now." Mordo said. He'd seen this before aye. This devotion, mindless and complete. She would not sleep, eat or drink until she'd seen the Queen. Then again she didn't have to do any of those things, but she'd soon find that out.

"Shall we press on then Undertaker?"

"Aye, I suppose ye are egger to meet yer fate." Mordo said resigned and began his limping gate again.


	6. Chapter 5: Deathknell

**Deathknell**

Deathknell used to be a small gold mining operation before it's death. Full of hope and treasures it marched a seemingly endless supply of gold into the vaults of Lordaeron. Now it's gold supply was dwindling and it's inhabitants dead. The dead of course were risen now but only a few remained able minded and bodied enough to mine the gold. Those who were not wandered the hills eating flesh and scratched at their coffins from inside the earth. The town had deteriorated badly, it's current owners cared very little for it's appearance. Wood warped with weather and age. Weeds grew almost everywhere but the most trodden ground. Trash and bones littered the dirt streets. The smell of decaying buildings and flesh was all pervasive. A dark and dirty town in a dark and dead part of the world.

The gold still trickled from the town however. Of course it went to fuel a different cause in a different city, Undercity. Not too large a change considering Undercity was essentially the sewers and crypts of Lordaeron turned capital city of the Forsaken.

The ore in the mines was smelted in Deathknell to be sent on it's way through Brill and then into the arms of the Dark Lady. Things however had grown difficult in the mines. They had been over run by spiders, large ones with fangs that could pierce a man's heart. Miners had died and many Deathguards had been sent back missing more than their pride.

Deathknell's troubles did not end there however. Recently the Scarlet Crusade, that great band of zealous necrophobics, had snuck into the forest just west of town. They'd set up their camps and tormented the denizens of Deathknell at every turn.

These things weighed heavy on the boney shoulders of Sarvis. He'd been selected as the administrator of Deathknell and had lived in quite comfort until recently. He sat at his desk in the church turned town hall and ran his skeleton fingers of the reports and requests.

"Shadow Priest Sarvis,

Please find enclosed the amount required by the Dark Lady for her efforts on the western front of the Plaguelands.

Victory for Sylvanas,

High Keeper Greegor

PS: Your regular shipment is over two weeks later. Make sure it arrives within the month. I will be forced to inform Arch Lord Varimathras if it does not and he will attend to it."

Sarvis buried his face in his hands. He knew where the shipment was he just couldn't get to it. Half the gold had yet to be mined, it sat in the rocks behind the spiders. The other half was smuggled away in some crate in the Scarlet camp. He highly doubted the dreadlord would leave the comfort and relative safety of the royal quarter much less Undercity but his shipments WERE late and someone would come to account for them. How was he to run a mining operation with all this nonsense in the way? Those incompetent Deathguards did nothing but sit outside all day and talk about how they'd get to the problem once it became a problem. Far outside his control they answered only to leaders of their order and the Dark Lady. Could they not see it had already become a problem? He supposed they were either too stupid or lazy to see.

"Mordo is here to see you Sarvis."

The voice of his assistant from across the large room brought his head up with a snap, literally. His head lolled back over his shoulders and he gazed at the wall behind him angrily. He reached up and pushed his head forward with his hands. His skull fell back onto his spine with a loud crack.

"What does he want? I'm rather busy." Sarvis shouted at the door on the far side of the room. He was of course not very busy but loathed to see the undertaker on any occasion.

"He has a- Wait a minute Mordo! You can't just go-!"

Mordo burst into the room through the large wooden door and limped his way into the office. His feet knocked on the wood in that all too familiar rhythm.

"I've a wonder for ye Sarvis!" he shouted across the room. He looked back and said, "Come in ye foolish girl! Make yer pleasantries before the Shadow Priest."

A young girl wearing Mordo's robe came in slowly looking at Sarvis. Mordo urged her forward with his hand in the small of her back grinning his five toothed grin, egger to please. She stood there, arms around her waist just staring at Sarvis. Mordo looked aside at her and thrust his elbow into her ribs. "Make yer niceties girl, he's waiting." he hissed at her through his gapped smile.

Vevian placed her hands at her crotch and bowed to the waist and said, "My name is Vevian Fairfield, it is a pleasure to meet you Shadow Priest Sarvis.".

She stayed that way until the Sarvis said, "Rise Vevian, we are all equals in the service of the Dark Lady." She then stood up straight with her hands clasped at her waist.

Sarvis got up from his desk and walked over to the girl named Vevian. "You've come a long way from school masters and teachings yet you still cling to their traditions. I'd not hold your propriety against you but I would suggest that you reframe from greeting all of the people in this town that way. Some might find it.... condescending." He eyed her with a smile in his glowing eyes.

Sarvis turned from her and walked back over to his desk. He plopped himself down in his chair with a grunt. "Right then, to the counting." Vevian eyed him nervously standing a bit straighter. Sarvis opened a large tome in front of himself which sent dust and small scraps of paper flying from his desk in a cloud. He covered his mouth with his fist and coughed as he reached into a draw and pulled out a pair of half-moon spectacles.

Opening the book and running his finger down the page he said "Fairfield? Vevian Fairfield you said correct?".

"Yes sir." Vevian said.

He ran his hands across a few more pages until he found what he was looking for. "Ah, here we are." he said. "Vevian Fairfield, daughter of Patrick and Selbie?" He asked looking over his spectacles.

"Yes sir" Vevian said again.

"Hmmmm." He growled deep in his chest stroking his chin while he looked at the book. He took a quill and wrote something on the page quickly and closed the book. "Well that's that. You're free to go about your unlife Vevian." He said with finality and began shuffling papers on his desk attempting to organize the mess.

Vevian stood there lost. Wasn't there supposed to be some kind of test? A marking of abilities, a ritual of membership? "Excuse me sir?" Vevian said quietly.

Sarvis looked up at her, "Yes my dear?".

"Am I not to be tested? To see what I can do for the Dark Lady?" Vevian inquired.

"Not here. Should you wish to join the Dark Lady's army you should proceed to Undercity and receive instruction there." Sarvis raised one eyebrow high onto his forehead. "Who told you that you'd be tested so soon after waking?"

Vevian looked sideways at Mordo for a moment and then looked back to Sarvis to tell him she simply assumed-

"Mordo you great bumbling gimp of an idiot!" Sarvis roared in frustration. "I told you to tell them they would be counted. THEN tested should they choose." He sat back into his chair and put him palm over his face. "This is an unlife of choice or have you forgotten Mordo? We are not building an army of unwilling soldiers, we are trying to build a nation." He uncovered his face and looked at Vevian. "Besides, we don't have the equipment here to test you. Not enough swords, dummies and teachers."

Vevian was disappointed. She had relished the idea of being able to show her skill and prove herself to the Dark Lady. "What am I to do now?" She asked.

"Well if your desire is to serve then you should be heading towards Undercity to see the testers." Sarvis said. "I'd like you to leave now. I have yet more words for our mutual friend Mordo."

Vevian turned trying not to look at Mordo who was giving her perhaps the dirtiest look she had ever received.

"Oh, I almost forgot. While you're hear we do have one thing you must to do." He said absent minded.

Vevian turned and waited expectantly.

"Take a bath." Sarvis said with a smile.

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Author Notes: Sorry, don't mean to blue ball you guys but the next chapter is still in the works.


	7. Chapter 6: Evening Bath

**Evening Bath**

The bath as it turned out was a bit more than just a dip in the tub as Vevian discovered. It consisted of several necromantic rituals and immersion in a boiling cauldron of potion and preservative fluid. "Your body may be moving but it's not alive anymore as I'm sure you've gathered from your brief time back." said the apothecary as he helped her into the bubbling mess, it's thick surface a shiny and sickly orange. "If we don't preserve your state now your body will continue to deteriorate until there's nothing left of you." he explained.

She'd been a bit hesitant to look him in the eye at first, and yes the single eye for the right side of his face and skull were missing. The gaping maw in the side of his head didn't seem to bother him however as he seemed to be keeping a coin purse tucked beside his brain. "Money on the mind" Vevian thought and started cackling wildly, a chittering evil noise that sounded nothing like her. The apothecary looked at her eyebrow raised and she was taken again to giggles and hysterical laughter. It wasn't that funny but she couldn't stop laughing. This was not her laughing, somewhere inside her another found pleasure and amusement at this man's torment. She managed to get hold of herself at last, what was wrong with her? This wasn't something to laugh about he was missing most of his head a terrible injury and it surly inhibited him. She must just be nervous, a lot had happened to her as of late.

The apothecary gave her a wary glance and then instructed her to get into the cauldron. The fluid inside was boiling but it felt ice cold on Vevian's skin as she lowered herself up to the neck in the cauldron. "So this is to keep me from rotting?" she asked looking up at the apothecary.

"In layman's terms yes." he said quietly. He made himself busy for awhile organizing bottles and powders on the table next to the vat of preservatives keeping his eyes off her. "You need to stay in there through the night." he said turning to the door. "I'll be back for you in the morning."

The apothecary walked out of the room and left Vevian there. She thought this was all so strange, being preserved while she was still conscious. Certainly it have never been a foreseeable event in her past life. This part was not so bad but the earlier segments of this preservation ritual had been rather unpleasant for her.

She'd been visited by a forsaken necromancer. She loathed all necromancers now she supposed and with good reason but she could not help but feel uneasy around even those friendly to her. He'd been kind enough for a risen necromancer but she had cringed at his every touch as he examined her and made notes in his scrolls. He'd had her lay down in a circle of runes and inscriptions then. He spoke words in the same tongue as she had heard when she was first turned in the halls of the dead. Her eyes darted back and forth across the ceiling as she lay there tense. She would have been sweating if she could still do that she supposed. As he spoke the incantation a soft purple light pulsed up her body covering her from head to toe. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation but still she grew more nervous. What if they turned her into a mindless ghoul again? What if he made a mistake somewhere and she was pulverized to dust here on his floor? She didn't think they would have been so helpful if their intent was to turn her to dust but she couldn't shake the feeling.

Vevian sighed as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Might as well try and get some rest if she was to be here all night. She lay there with her eyes closed for hours trying to relax as she contemplated her day and the days ahead. The cauldron bubbled around her and she found the sensation was not unpleasant. She opened her eyes and stared out the dirty window into the night. A full day she'd had, brimming with new people and places. The excitement of it all must be keeping her up. Despite that she didn't feel the least bit tired. In fact she didn't feel anything but the cold fluid against her body. She attempted to get up out of the cauldron but as soon as she did the parts of her skin that touched the air began to burn. She quickly lowered herself back down into the liquid. "Guess I'm not going anywhere till morning," she thought and lowered herself so only her yellow glowing eyes showed above the thick orange mess.

Morning came at last with no rest for the young mage. She'd stayed awake all night and listened to the sound of the wolves howl outside. She was watching the sun rise through the grimy window when the apothecary came in. "Glad to see you're still in one piece." he said with a faint grin. He was carrying a bundle of clothes and he placed them on the table. "These are for you as you may have guessed." he commented patting the clothes. He reached for a bottle of red liquid on the table next to the cauldron then. He took out the cork with a small pop as he walked over to Vevian. "Now, I'm going to add this and as soon as the potion turns red I need you to get out as fast as you can. It wouldn't do for you to linger." he said looking down at her expectantly.

"Alright." Vevian said and readied herself.

He poured the red liquid into the cauldron and it stopped bubbling. She felt it grow still around her and then begin to heat up. She watched the surface turn from orange to green and then to blue. The apothecary also watched closely making sure everything went as planned.

Suddenly the potion grew very hot and began to boil again as the surface turned bright crimson. Vevian hoisted herself out of the cauldron and landed on the wooden floor. Some of the potion she had on her dripped to the floor and ate at it's surface like acid smoking and hissing. She turned to face the apothecary but he was several steps away from her now eyeing the cauldron. It continued to boil furiously and she could feel the heat it was radiating. She also took a few steps backwards, this looked a mite bit dangerous. The cauldron shook suddenly banging it's heavy iron legs against the floor and the whole building shook. The potion turned black then and the cauldron tipped onto it's side. The potion however remained within, it had solidified.

"There we are." said the apothecary. "You'll want to get dressed, Sarvis wants to see you before you're on your way." he said turning to leave.

"I'll make sure to speak with him before I leave town." Vevian said. The apothecary opened the door and shut it behind himself promptly.

Vevian turned to the clothes he had left. They were deep purple almost black. A little bit of black trim adorned the sleeves and hem but that was all. A set of black boots and a pair of fingerless gloves, black as well, sat underneath the bundle of clothes. She slid on the robe and saw that it fit well, she didn't think she could have fit into a dress this size in her past life. Her past life she had thought, already she'd committed herself to this new existence she guessed.

She took the boots and went over to the now stilled cauldron and plopped herself down on it's upturned side putting on the boots. She bent to tie them and grabbed hold of the laces with her long pointed fingers and tried to get them underneath each other. The rest of her fingers just as long and longer got in the way and she dropped the laces onto the boots. She stared down at her hands again, great unseemly claws. Her hands tightened into fists and her nails bit into her palms and forearms leaving little puncture marks.

She left the room and walked down the stairs. The bubble of liquids and the squeaking of rats met her ears. She rounded the stairs and saw she was in a potion shop of sorts. All manner of strange and interesting things adorned the walls in bottles, baskets, vials, jars, boxes and cages. She thought she saw a large insect stinger about the size of a pumpkin sitting on a shelf in the far corner. She looked around the small room. No one was here but all the burners were going and potions and elixirs brewed. She sniffed the air and what she smelled would have killed a small child but it didn't bother her in the slightest. She shrugged and walked out the door.

She had been in a potion shop she saw as she turned around to inspect the sign. "Alphred'sEpidemiology and Potions" the sign read. A doctor? Certainly not the most common profession for an undead she thought but he certainly had made himself useful, perhaps she could too.

She headed down the dirt street and looked up at the sky. It took her a moment to find the sun through the smoke and cloud again but it showed it was about midmorning. She supposed she really should see what Sarvis wanted before she headed off. She was in no mood to run errands for the mayor but if he had something useful to say she would hear it.

As she walked towards the town hall she spied a group of three undead in the shade of an inn. They were clad in purple hoods and mail armor. One of them wielded his large sword adamantly as he talked to the other two. They seemed to be arguing about something.

"Cowards they'd call us! Great bumbling cowards with heads full of dust and guts full of worms." shouted one to the other two. They were all in various states of "disrepair" it seemed. One was missing his lower jaw, the other his abdomen and his torso hung over his pelvis on his spine as if held by magic.

"You can't really expect us to charge into their camp hooting and hollering can you? We'd be stuck down in moments, they've the Light on their side as you remember." said the one with the floating torso. The one without his jaw gurgled his agreement and pointed adamantly to the west then made a grand "no way" gesture with his arms.

"And this is why they'd call us cowards!" shouted the other. "We'd sooner rush into the mines with sticks than face those zealots in the woods they'd say. They'd say there isn't one inch of backbone between the three of us despite the obvious." he said gesturing at the spine of the other.

Vevian couldn't help but smile a the trio. They seemed to grow more absurd by the moment as the jawless one took it upon himself to start jumping and stamping his feet on the ground to try and convey some point. She covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a laugh and turned towards the church.

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Author's Note:


	8. Chapter 7: Favor for a Favor

**Favor For A Favor**

The town seemed a bit more alive this time of the morning, if you could call it alive at all. A few people were out running errands, delivering messages and trading goods. A small portion looked at her quizzically, a new face in a town of the undead was undoubtedly of interest. A few nodded her way or raised their hand in passing but no one spoke to her and no one smiled at her.

She reached the town hall after passing a few more houses and the inn. She stepped in the entrance and was surprised to see a group of soldiers dressed as the band of ridiculous fellows she'd seen back near the potion shop. They seemed to be just finishing their business with Sarvis and were filing out, their boots knocking hard on the wooden floor. They eyed her with their expressionless glowing sockets as they passed out, sizing her up in silence. These men seemed a bit more serious minded and capable than those she'd seen before. It was both heartening and disconcerting to know that these men with their hard faces and blank expressions were charged with protecting the town. Their armor jingled as they filed out leaving Vevian alone with the clerk who appeared to act as Sarvis' secretary.

Vevian approached the desk and the clerk looked up at her. The clerk was missing her cheeks and Vevian could see the yellowing teeth lining the inside her mouth. She was sorting through mountains of paperwork and books, all in some state of decay. The papers were piled high on and around the rotting wood desk. Vevian coughed lightly and the clerk looked up. The clerk smiled at her creating an even more hideous spectacle. Only the sides of her lips covered her teeth as she grinned her skeleton grin. Vevian forced herself to smile back.

"Sarvis asked to see me before I left. Is he busy?" Vevian asked.

"No deary, he just finished with some of the town's guards as you saw." the clerk said kindly. "Go on in."

Vevian stepped past the clerk and her mounds of paper into Sarvis' office.

"Ah, Ms. Fairfield. How nice to see you again." said Sarvis looking up from a scroll, unlike the other's in this office this one seemed new.

"You wanted to see me?" Vevian asked, she wanted to be done with this and on to Undercity.

"Yes I do. Please come have a seat." He said as he gestured towards one of the three chairs in front of his desk smiling.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like to get going as soon as possible." Vevian said.

The smile fell from Sarvis' face and looked at her sternly. "Very well, I'll cut right to the chase then Ms. Fairfield. I'm in a bit of a bind. My town here is supposed to supply gold to the Forsaken cause from the mines north of town. However there have been ... complications .... as of late."

Vevian stood stoic, this is the part where he would ask her to help him do his job. To help him make up for his shortcomings and squeeze a bit of free labor out of her. Growing up as a farmers daughter she'd had plenty of work squeezed from her, mostly by her father but in a small community everyone needed something.

"I assume you've heard of the Scarlet Crusade?" he said folding his hands on his desk.

"Yes, paladins and warriors as brave as they come. Loyal to Lordaeron and the Alliance." she said counting off what she had learned from her teachers.

"Well, that's what they were. But now their something a bit more menacing to everyone, even the living." he said seriously. "They were so shaken by the Scrouge invasion that they holed themselves up in their monasteries for most of the attack. They struck out at the Scrouge in a vain attempt to save these lands but they were so fearful of the Plague that they began to cleanse the living as well, just to be safe. They now recognize only their own as allies. They consider everyone else tainted by the Scourge or at least in alliance with them, the discovery of the Cult of the Damned shook their faith in humanity."

Vevian was startled to hear that the Scarlet Crusade, greatest of the Alliance's holy warriors were now afraid of even their own kind. The invasion must have truly been more terrible than she had seen.

"They turned on their own so quickly? The invasion was only a couple of months. What could have driven them to do so?" Vevian asked.

Sarvis looked at her sadly, "Ms. Fairfield ... Vevian. Do you know how long you've been dead?"

Vevian started. She simply assumed it had been a few weeks, a month at the most. How long could she have been in that void for?

"I can't say for certain. I would guess a month or two." She said.

Sarvis shook his head "You've been asleep for over five years Ms. Fairfield. I know this because your last know sighting among the living was in Dalaran the day it was attacked and sealed off. The records I have here are quite thorough."

She was shocked. How could five years pass in the blink of an eye? What had she missed? Would she even recognize a friend if she saw them? Would they recognize her?

She must have had a look on her face because he said, "I understand this must be a blow to you. Much has happened but I'm not the one with the answers you seek. I do however know a lore keeper in Undercity who can help you unravel the past that was taken from you."

"I ... I thank you for trying to help me." Vevian said slowly, she was still in shock. Five years? How could it have been so long?

"My assistance does however come at a cost." He said. He was kind enough man but underneath he was all business it seemed. "Members of the Scarlet Crusade have stolen a shipment of gold from the town and hidden it in their camp in the woods west of town. I need you to go and recover it."

"Why me? You have a town full of guards behind you." Vevian asked knowing the answer.

"They are cowards, we are far behind the front lines for the battle against the Scourge and all capable and brave soldiers have been sent there. All I have here are those too weak or cowardly to fight the Lich King." Sarvis explained. "I do not ask you out of hand but out of necessity, I need you to do this." He picked up a scrap of parchment from his desk and looked it over. "As both Mordo and my records confirm you were a mage in your life and have kept your magic through death. This is very rare, and therefore valuable. The Scarlet dogs will not be expecting a magus to jump into their midsts and set them ablaze."

"I work more in ice than fire but I take your meaning." Vevian said coldly. If the Scarlet Crusade had run rampant that was bad news indeed, they represented a fair portion of the resistance against the Scourge, at least they had when she was living. "So your acquaintance in Undercity can recount the years I've missed? Fill in the history for me?" she asked.

"Yes, far better than I can anyway. I like you was turned and lost for most of the invasion. He on the other hand died only a few months ago. A great friend and librarian in life he now serves as a master of lore for the Forsaken in death." said Sarvis a wry grin on his face.

"Why is that amusing?" Vevian asked.

"Oh. Well. Let's just say siding with the Forsaken wasn't his choice." Sarvis said.

"What do you mean?" Vevian asked. What happened to an unlife of choice.

"Well while we were both alive we worked with the Alliance to help them analyze the Scourge and the magics that hold them together. He obviously got further into his reseach than I did seeing as how I was turned while attempting to gain a fresh specimen early on as I've said." he said grinning. "In the end he discovered much, too much. After the scourge were driven from their lands the Alliance turned their attention to the Forsaken believing us the last remnants of the Lich King's corruption. He was aiding them in their attack against the Forsaken, providing information and formulas to destroy us faster. Needless to say they couldn't allow his research to continue for the Alliance, so he was assassinated." Sarvis smiled wide. "The irony of course was that he was left dead in his laboratory where upon the Plague specimens he had collected found their way to his corpse and turned him. He awoke and fled Stormwind. He arrived here demanding some kind of reparation and the rest as they say, is history."

"That all seems very cruel." Vevian said.

"War is cruel." Sarvis replied simply.

Vevian sighed deeply, "Very well then." she said. "I'll deal with your problem in exchange for your 'friend's' help." She did not envy the idea of ending the life of so many once noble warriors but if it needed to be done to ease the Forsaken's plight, so be it.

"They are a few miles into the woods west of Deathknell." Sarvis explained. "They'll be on the lookout, we've been attacking them ever since they arrived however they seem a bit more resilient than we predicted. You will want to circle around and attack them from east at high moon. I will be assigning a squad to attack from the west at that time to give you a bit of a distraction for you to retrieve the gold and raze their camp."

"I'll need some supplies, are there any materials of a magical nature that are available here?" Vevian asked. If she was to assault an entire encampment she'd need more than her bare hands.

"We have a limited array of magical items yes. Severine's Surplus in town keeps the majority and they can direct you to individuals who might have what you cannot find there. I will instruct Severine to give you whatever you need however those in town are not bound to give up their personals." Sarvis said. "Well, since we have an agreement I have other business to attend to." he said sinking into his chair a bit further. He started sorting through his seemly endless supply of paper searching for something again.

Vevian bowed and left his office. The clerk smiled at her again as she left. Vevian didn't smile back.

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Author's Note: Some might think there is a continuity error in that if she's been dead for five years her body would have deteriorated since she was not preserved until this point. This is not a continuity error and is in fact part of the story. Also, wtb more reviews. Your thoughts on the story thus far intrigue me.


	9. Chapter 8: Strange Acquaintances

**Strange Acquaintances **

Vevian sat at the inn and clutched her new supplies in her lap. She'd gotten everything she needed from the meager selection at the shop, she would only need simple spells after all. Bottles of glistening powders and gossamer wires clunk and shifted as she set the bag on the floor between her feet. She'd have a bit of preparation to do if she wanted her attack to go smoothly but nothing that couldn't wait until tomorrow.

She shifted forward and the wooden bench beneath her creaked as she reached for her stein. A foul brew sloshed inside and Vevian turned the corners of her mouth down in disgust. She lifted the drink to her face and the beer went down smooth but she supposed anything would considering she could neither taste nor smell the soupy mixture. It settled cold in her stomach and she felt the extra weight pull on her insides. She grimaced and put down the stein, traditional food and drink did not appeal to her anymore. Sighing she plopped her elbow down on the table and rested her chin in her palm, careful to avoid her sharpened fingers. She gazed around the bar at the patrons, all dead. There was no song, there was no good hearted laughter as people exchanged stories and drank deeper. Everyone was morose and hung their heads in their mugs. "How depressing." Vevian thought as she slouched deeper and hung her head.

"Oh now lass, don't look so down." said an amiable voice. She looked up to see a large man holding two mugs that had a large heads of foam that dribbled to the saw dusted floor.

"I suppose it's always this dull?" Vevian questioned as the man set down the mugs and stood with his hands on his hips.

"Well, it gets a bit rowdy from time to time, but that's only because someone takes it in to their empty head to start trouble." he scratched his chin and took a look at the room. "Though this is the norm now-a-days, not to much to be cheerful about I'm afraid." he said almost apologetically.

"Oh, it's fine. I don't feel much like celebrating anyway." Vevian sighed looking sullenly at the mugs on the table. "Those for me?" she asked.

"Ay ma'm." he said. "Gift from a friend at the bar." he mentioned as he gestured over his shoulder to the row of empty stools by the broken bar.

"There's no one at the bar." Vevian replied coyly and the man turned and his eyes widened "This wouldn't be an attempt to gain my affections would it?" she crooned raising her head slightly to see the man's eyes and the man's face went ashen.

Vevian felt and hand slide onto her shoulder and a soft voice whisper into her ear "Wouldn't dream of it love..."

Vevian jumped up and bumped the table spilling her drink while the man managed to catch the two he had brought letting out a startled gasp. The hand was joined by another on her other shoulder and their grip grew tight as who ever it was pushed her back into a sitting position. Vevian reached behind her and the hands fell away and she spun to face the owner of the misty voice.

She stared across the bar at the other patrons who were all looking at her surprised. There was no one anywhere near her and the patrons all were looking past her. Vevian turned slowly to find a woman clad in leather sitting across the table from her smiling devilishly while drinking out of one the mugs the man had brought. "Hello there sweetness." the woman said slamming the mug down to ring with a hollow thump to indicate that it was empty.

"Who the hell are you?" Vevian asked her eyes glowing brighter as her anger grew.

"Who the hell are you?" mocked the woman in a high falsetto waving her arms lightly. "Can't anyone ever ask any interesting questions?" she said through her grin. "Like, 'why are you here'?"

Vevian's mouth tightened and she said slowly "Why are you here?"

"Excellent question darling!" the woman burst with laughter in her eyes "You're a sharp one aren't you girl?"

Vevian's face tightened and she said nothing while the woman just smiled, her glowing eyes pulsing.

"I'm here to see you." the woman said slowly "Care to chance at why?"

Vevian had no idea what this obtrusive woman would want with her, she didn't know anyone here and had no ties to anything. "I'm sure I will only be mocked for guessing so why don't you tell me." Vevian said grimacing.

"Oh, sure." the woman said leaning backwards and forwards making the bench creak loudly. "Take all the fun out of my question, seems like the thing to do." she mocked and tapped her fingers on the table in a disjointed rhythm.

The man who had brought the drinks looked uncomfortable as he set the remaining mug down and hurried away with an ashamed looked on his face. Vevian was sure he wouldn't have agreed to bring the drinks if he had known the woman would act like this.

Her eyes darted across the bar looking at nothing in particular as she continued her rocking and tapping. "I'm here to help, despite appearances." she chuckled and her eyes locked on Vevian's. "Help with your little, assignment from Sarvis." her grin widening to seem almost too large for her narrow face.

Vevian's eyes widened. "I wasn't told I would be receiving assistance." she said.

"Oh I'm sure he just neglected to mention it." she sighed "He's always so busy, some times he forgets to mention me." she said a false frown on her pale face. Her grin widened and she leaned closed and said "I think he doesn't like me much." her voice a conspiratorial whisper.

"I can't imagine why." Vevian said harshly and tried to think of how to keep this woman as far away from her during the following night as possible, she seemed unstable.

"Oh?! Is that a joke?" the woman grinned. "Oh, that is rich! I don't think I'll ever be able to stop my sides from splitting!" she roared never taking her eyes from Vevian while she slammed her fist into the table.

Vevian sensed this woman's madness now. It dripped from her words like black smoke and gleamed in her erratic movements. Why on earth was she on Sarvis' payroll when she was clearly insane?

"I don't suppose you have a name?" Vevian said quietly reaching to take the second mug from the table. But before she could reach it the woman snatched it, quicker than thought and began downing it with an enthusiasm that bordered on gluttony.

"I've got lots of 'em!" she said around the mouth of the mug her eyes pulsing faster. "How many do you want?"

"Just one." Vevian said

"ohh... hmmm." the woman sighed in to the empty mug "Just one? No fun, you're no fun at all..." She glanced into the mug and said "What name should I give her?". Her mouth turned down in a frown as she said "Oh no, that one has no class, no class at all darling." she growled into the mug. She waited a few moments her brow creased in concentration as she held the mug up to her ear. "Ohhhh." she crooned. "I LIKE that one, we'll tell her that one!" she giggled as her eyes flashed to Vevian.

"My name is Mordinea!" she declared proudly slamming the second empty mug on the table with her too wide smile on her thin face.

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Author's Note: It's been quite awhile hasn't it? I'd apologize but I doubt it would mean much. How about some regular updates in exchange for some reviews? Yes, that seems to be just compensation for your patience.


	10. Chapter 9: The Scarlet Bandits

**The Scarlet Bandits**

The dark woods were perfectly quiet as Vevian stood in a small clearing and waited for Mordinea to arrive. They had spoken last night of her plan and Mordinea seemed to be in full agreement with her proposal, though one could never be certain. The moons cast long shadows in the trees and seemed to make the night somehow even more surreal to Vevian than it already was. Her glowing eyes seemed more at home in the dark than in the light and she saw everything with a perfect clarity impossible at this time of night in her former existence.

She had set the traps several hours earlier, pulling in her spells and storing them in the powders she had taken from the supply store. It was tricky business getting the spells to stay fresh over long periods while stored, but she only needed them to stay strong for a couple hours, just until the scarlets tripped the wires and were frozen solid. She had used her magic to kill before, but never in mass. She wondered if it would kill them or just leave their legs frozen while their icy nerves told their minds that their legs were on fire. Vevian's brow furrowed slightly, not a pleasant way to go.

Mordinea should have been there by now and Vevian began to pace lightly around the clearing. She wasn't nervous, just excited to see if her magic would work. Her feet scuffed the forest floor lightly as she padded about and she couldn't help but have the feeling she was being watched. She turned to look over her shoulder and saw nothing even with her new eyes. She shrugged and turned back around to find Mordinea perched lightly on a tree across the clearing her hands gripping the branch between her feet. Her face widened with a gruesome smile as she saw Vevian notice her.

"Took you long enough," she said lightly jumping down soundlessly and making her way towards Vevian.

"Long enough for what? I've been here nearly an hour waiting for you," Vevian said tightly. Mordinea was unreliable and extremely unbalanced. Not someone she wanted to be working with, in any task.

"Oh, aren't you punctual," said Mordinea her voice lofty as she slipped uncomfortably close to Vevian examining her features. "I've been here for 2 hours watching you pace about. You're very pretty, pretty little girl." she crooned softly.

"You should have said something, I want to be done with this so I can move on to the Undercity," Vevian said hotly putting her hand on Mordinea's shoulder and pushing her back. She had been sitting there waiting for Vevian to notice her presence, how creepy was that?

"There's no fun in announcing yourself," Mordinea said flippantly, backing away from Vevian to start bouncing lightly from foot to foot, her glowing eyes darting from tree to tree.

"Not everything needs to be fun," Vevian said tightly "You'll need to calm down if we're to do this and walk away clean."

"Calm down? Calm Down?!" Mordinea said "Why should we calm down? The fun's just about to begin! I can feel it, can't you?" she giggled, jumping in ernest now, landing silently only to leap upward again.

"I'm sure we have very different definitions of the word 'fun'," Vevian said drawing her arms around herself. This woman was starting to bother her.

"Fun," Mordinea said, her eyes dryly staring off into nothing "You can't spell fun without murder my dear." she said, her pulsing eyes snapping back to Vevian.

"I'm not going to start with you." Vevian said dryly, her eyes growing narrow as she bent to pick up her things.

"Once again m'lady you've managed to suck all the joy out of the situation," Mordinea said, stopping her bouncing and skipping up to Vevian. She leaned in close and Vevian leaned back in disgust. "We're going to have to change your attitude missy." Mordinea whispered lightly into her ear. "We're going to make things oh so very exciting for you, and then you'll see how much fun there is to be had." she giggled and ran off ahead of Vevian into the woods.

Vevian started and went to follow her. They needed to stick together lest they be killed by the scarlet bandits when they sprung her trap. She clambered into the woods trying to follow Mordinea in the direction of the scarlet camp, but to no avail. The damned woman was completely silent as she made her way unseen through the trees and Vevian didn't have a hope of catching her if she didn't want to be found.

Vevian slowed her pace as she neared the camp and bent to conceal herself better. The camp was very close now and she could hear the clatter of swords and the voices of men. "Just great," she thought, Mordinea was going to alert them before the majority were drawn off by the Deathguards to the west. She didn't think that her traps could take all of them out, there was only so much a couple of bottled spells could do.

Vevian's pace grew slow as the brush thinned and she saw the camp. There were about twenty men around a fire all clad in plate armor and bright red tabards to clearly identify themselves. Despite their bandit activities these men believed themselves to be doing the work of the Light by killing innocents. The majority were in the center of the camp around the fire talking lightly and eating while a few stood guard outside the tents. Two she saw were out by a stacking of crates that were obviously what they had stolen. Overall not a very impressive group, but enough to cause harm to a small settlement like Deathknell.

Vevian peered harder at the camp trying to find Mordinea, but to no avail. Gods damn her, she was gone. Then she saw a lone guard drop down face first into the grass with the small glimmer of a knife in the back in his neck. "This is going to get messy," Vevian thought bitterly as she went to pull herself up and begin her assault as well. Just then a hand dropped down on her shoulder and familiar voice spoke softly into her ear, "Easy love. Wouldn't want you to get hurt now would we?" Vevian batted away the hand and turned to find Mordinea crouched behind her, a wide smile showing her glistening teeth.

"How the hell did you get back here so fast?" Vevian asked, her voice a harsh whisper.

"I'm everywhere sweetness," she said simply, her voice a lonesome drawl.

Vevian really didn't want to know what she meant by that and simply accepted that somehow Mordinea was faster than she thought possible. "We need to wait for the distraction first, unless you'd rather be torn to ribbons," she said matter of factly.

"What color?" Mordinea asked seriously.

"What color of what?" Vevian asked startled.

"Of ribbons," Mordinea said wistfully staring at her hands.

Vevian sighed heavily and turned back around to the camp. No one had noticed the guard since he had been far from the others and was now merely a darker splotch of black among the grass. That was good. Their cover hadn't been compromised.

"I really don't care what games you play with your own life," Vevian said angrily, turning to Mordinea who still appeared to be fancying the idea of becoming a pile of ribbons. "But I'm not going to die because you are out of your mind," Vevian said pointing at Mordinea.

Mordinea snapped back to reality, her face blank of expression. "I'm not crazy," she said flatly.

"You are the very last person on the face of this entire world who can say that honestly," Vevian spat.

Mordinea's mood darkened as she eyed Vevian without any expression on her face. Vevian wasn't sure if it was the realization of mortal danger or her insult that had an effect on her, but she seemed more docile and for that Vevian was thankful.

"We need to wait here," Vevian said quietly sitting down from her crouch. Mordinea followed suit and hung her head. Vevian wasn't sure if she liked this quiet Mordinea more or less than the rude fidgeting woman she had met last night.

They waited on the edge of the camp for almost half an hour until there was any sign of a disturbance from the camp. One of the men was shouting at the others and they all ran to grab their shields and swords. A few stayed behind while the shouting man led the rest off the west undoubtedly to counter the Deathguard's half hearted assault unmindful of their missing companion. The seven that were left looked nervous as they rummaged about the camp seemingly unsure of what to do.

Vevian tapped Mordinea on the shoulder lightly and her empty face came up to meet Vevian's eyes. She was totally gone. Not a trace of consciousness lay on her once smiling face. Vevian shook her lightly and said, "Hey, Mordinea. We have to go now." Still Mordinea just sat there with that blank look on her face her hands laying limp in her lap.

Vevian thought for a moment and got an idea. "Mordinea, are you ready to play?" she said lightly.

"Play?" Mordinea mumbled.

"Yea, we have to go over there and play with those guards. Are you ready?"

"I... I want to play," said Mordinea seeming to become more aware as she began to get up.

"Good, because they want to play too, but we have to make them play where we were before in the woods, do you remember?" Vevian asked.

"With your baubles and your wires?" Mordinea asked her eyebrows going high.

"Yes, back there. Do you think you can get them there?"

"Oh yes," she said simply.

"Alright, then go get them there," Vevian said pulling her the rest of the way up. Mordinea's face lit up with a demonic smile.

"I'm ready to play!" Mordinea shouted and Vevian swore, the guards would have heard that.

Vevian guessed it served their purpose and broke away from Mordinea to run deeper into the woods as to not be seen by the guards that rushed by. Soon enough she heard the harsh tongues and boots of the men as they trampled through the woods towards her trap, perfect.

Vevian waited for what she hoped was the last man to run past her and followed at a light pace. She would hear it when they reached her trap she was sure of it. As if summoned by her thought she heard a gargled scream. It was too soon for them to have gotten to the clearing, something had gone wrong. She slowed her pace and tried to see through the trees. She padded forward for several minutes and then she saw them. The group of guards had stopped shy of her clearing and were gathered in a protective circle around what appeared to be one of their fallen comrades. Mordinea had obviously forgotten the plan and killed one of them.

Vevian's thoughts scrambled as she tried to figure a way around this kink in her plan. She'd have to lure them herself and she was no where near as fast or agile as Mordinea. This was getting way too risky.

Vevian bit back a scream as she was almost toppled over and she hit the soft earth with a small exhale of breath. Mordinea peered down at her. Her mouth and neck was covered in slowly dribbling blood and some it fell onto Vevian's face. Vevian pushed up and bumped Mordinea out of her way. This was getting gross as well.

"What the fuck was that?" Vevian said. Her words so harsh and low as to be almost indistinguishable from a growl.

Mordinea's smile only widened as she leaned in and gave Vevian a soft kiss on the lips. She pulled back and startled Vevian sat there in the dirt with blood all over her lips and wet patches on her dark purple robes. The blood tasted good, too good. Then Vevian noticed that she could taste the blood, it was the only thing she had tasted since she had died and it tasted wonderful, like liquid fire. Vevian stared at Mordinea fought the urge to spell the twisted woman into a pile of bones. As if sensing her thought Mordinea chuckled and slipped off deeper into the forest. Vevian guessed the woman had snapped. "So much for backup," Vevian thought dismally and got up quietly into a crouch. She wiped at her face with the back of her palm and only succeeded in smearing the blood around. Great, now she would look just like what they expected, a flesh eating monster.

The guards still stood in a circle around their fallen friend and seemed unsure of what to do. "I'll give them something to focus on," Vevian thought bitterly as she snuck around them to the side facing her clearing. She stood abruptly and shouted at them. All six turned and charged at her, their need for vengeance evident in their burning eyes.

Vevian turned and sprinted into the clearing jumping over the wire at it's edge. She kept going to the other side of the clearing and turned when she reached it's edge, she wanted to see this. The men breached the clearing and Vevian heard the sharp twang as the wire was pulled from it's catch activating the stored spell. But nothing happened. The men had heard it and were looking behind them to see looking scared. "I'm done for," Vevian thought with finality. They turned their attention back to her when a sudden crack of energy emanated from the bushes surrounding the men at the opposite edge of the clearing.

The swirl of magical frost poured over the legs of the men and they screamed. Several fell as their legs were flash frozen and their lungs turned to ice. Only two remained standing. They were clawing and pulling at their legs as if trying to remove them. Their anguished faces turned to her and she brought her hands up to summon another spell. This was mercy she though as she pulled in the magic around to freeze the air around her hand. They were in too much pain to just leave here. She let the bolt of sharpened ice loose with a shout of invocation to speed it on its way. The lance shot through one of the men's head and stuck half way, freezing itself in the man's skull. The other screamed something at her as his comrade's upper body slumped backwards bending at the knee above his frozen legs. He was holding his hands up as if pleading. Vevian couldn't understand him, but the terrified look told her all she needed to know. She would let this one live. Legless, this man would not pose a threat to anyone and to kill him would be cruel.

Just then the man cried out and fell forward, his legs breaking off where they had frozen. Vevian gasped as Mordinea rode the man down on his back stabbing and cutting all the way down, her hands moving too fast to see. Blood poured from the man and his cries fell blessedly silent as Mordinea drove her draggers in the man's spine just below the skull, separating his brain from the rest of his body. She cackled wildly and cut loose the man's shoulder blade. She tore it away and buried her face into the man's shoulder tearing away a huge chunk of flesh. She smacked her jaw up and down grinding the meat loud enough for Vevian to hear from across the clearing.

"Oh god," Vevian whispered. Is this was it was to be Forsaken? To kill without conscience and feast on your former brothers? This wasn't what she wanted, she didn't want to see this. She took one last look at the sickly satisfied smile on Mordinea's face and ran from the clearing. Gods help us, gods help us all.

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Author's Note: Guess who updated when they said they would? Did you say me? Oh god! You're so right it hurts. I'm not going to promise anything but I think one chapter every two or three days is a reasonable assumption at this point. Unless I decided to cram my head into my ass for six months again, which is always a possibility. (It's so warm in there.)


	11. Chapter 10: Broken, Forgotten and Found

**Broken, Forgotten and Found**

Vevian fled through the forest stumbling over the knotted roots and through the clawing branches, frantic in her need to escape the horror of her new existence. She wasn't free from the Lich King's corruption it seemed, none of them were. There was still a portion of their deep sub-conscience that would always want to be the monsters they had been, an animalistic instinct to hunt, kill, and consume. With this new compulsion came a twisted moral center that dealt with this new appetite. People were food and that was natural her mind said, but her soul begged to differ.

She had found the brief taste of blood Mordinea had kissed onto her mouth to her liking, but not completely satisfactory, she needed flesh. It came as naturally as hunger or thirst in her previous life. This desire to fill herself with another; to hopefully find what she had lost within their bodies.

She'd never tasted flesh as herself, only while under the direct control of the Lich king had she gorged herself, but she knew it was what she needed now, just as woman have urges for particular foods while they are with child. Her body's promise of the ecstasy that would come from consumption was overbearing, like a long repressed sexual urge. She knew it would feel so good to fill herself with flesh while its owner's heart squeezed its final frantic ounces of adrenaline sweetened blood through the writhing muscles that she might never stop.

All this frightened her, this rediscovered need for flesh. Her pace slowed as the grey contorted shapes of the trees began to thin; she halted when she reached the well beaten road.

Vevian fell to her knees and sobbed into her withered palms. The feeling of oozing moisture met her hands, and she realized she was crying again. The thick oily tears stained her face and hands, leaving dark smears. She wept quietly for herself, her lost loved ones, and her new brothers and sisters in the Forsaken. They were all damned.

The tears soon dried up to only leave a dark slime on her and she realized that she had no more tears. She was now and forever physically incapable of shedding another tear, for anyone. This new realization made her want to cry all the more, but without the release of tears, her body shook with her emotions. She huddled into herself and moaned quietly. There was nothing she could do, she rocked there on the side of the path, gasping and holding her face unable to concentrate on anything but her overwhelming sense of loss and loneliness.

She didn't know how long she had lain there, but when she managed to sit up, the grass was covered in dew and fog shone thick over the grass in the rising sun. She got up hesitantly, wiping the dampness from her robes as best she could. She needed to get back to Sarvis and tell him she had been unable to burn the camp and secure the stolen gold. He wouldn't be happy, but he could send his Deathguards again and wipe out the remaining bandits. There couldn't be many of them left after last night.

Vevian made her way along the road, in what she perceived as the direction of Deathknell for over an hour before coming across anyone. She was able to identify them from a long ways off by their forms. They were Deathguards. Purple hoods fluttered and mail shoulder pads glistened in the newly risen sun as they made their way towards her, swords swinging at their hips. She then recognized these three particular individuals from two days ago. They were the guards she had seen arguing comically while on her way to see Sarvis. She covered her mouth with her claw-like hand to hide her smile as they passed her on the road.

Not three moments after she had passed them she heard the one without a jaw let out an low gurgle and sensed them turn around, their eyes on her. She stopped and turned as well seeing the most whole of the three reaching out to touch her shoulder. She brought up her hand to grab his boney wrist. "Can I help you?" Vevian said slowly. The man look taken aback his lightly glowing eyes widening.

"Uh..." he sounded mindlessly apparently not knowing to say. The one with out his jaw gurgled again at his compatriot, who was missing his middle, seemingly trying to communicate. The gutless man nodded his head as if he understood the spurting noises.

"We're looking for you," said the gutless man. "Or rather we were; we've found you now." The man grinned wide showing his blackening teeth apparently pleased with himself.

"And why are you looking for me?" Vevian asked dropping the man's wrist and stepping back. She wanted to be able to get away incase Sarvis had sent them to punish her for her failure.

"We were worried about you," said the one who had tried to touch her. "We saw you go off with that mad woman and thought that you could use some help. God only knows what she threatened to make you take her with you."

"Threatened?" Vevian questioned. Mordinea hadn't threatened her, well not really. She said she had been sent my Sarvis to help her.

"She's been hanging around the town lately, causing trouble for everyone." The man explained. "Stealing, lying, breaking, smashing, and endangering the public," he listed off on his fingers having to use his second hand to finish, many of his fingers were missing.

"Breaking and smashing are the same thing you fool," commented the gutless one.

"They are most certainly not!" protested the first man. They seemed ready to start a prolonged and asinine argument. The jawless one stepped in between them his eyes holding a look of a long suffering intellectual. He gurgled wordlessly to the second man gesturing lightly and the second nodded his head, a thoughtful hand coming up to his chin.

"Dr. Hardstein has a point," muttered the second man. "Within the context of the law they are both considered destruction of property and are therefore the same." The first raised his hand to object but the second cut him off before he could start. "However, outside the law they carry separate connotations."

The first man looked from the third man to the second. "So that means we're both right?" he questioned.

"Indeed," muttered the second his fingers tapping lightly on his dark lips.

The first smiled broadly and seemed to swell a bit as he turned back to Vevian. "We're both right," he declared proudly as if it meant something to Vevian. Vevian stared blankly at him, these men must have severe brain damage or they were supremely dense. She made to turn and leave but the first raised his voice in protest. She stopped and rounded on him again.

"Mordinea did not hurt me, if that is truly your concern," Vevian said angrily. "And I must return to town to tell Sarvis that I wasn't able to raze the camp or recover the stolen gold," she explained. "So if you gentlemen would be so kind as to leave me alone and let me get to Deathknell, I have business to attend to." She turned to go and the second man spoke.

"No need for that my lady, we've tended it for you," he said nonchalantly.

Vevian stopped again, these were the most ass backwards men she had ever met, why not just tell her that from the start?

"We arrived at the camp after you, but you had already gone and the camp was empty save two guards," he said as he picked at his hand with his other, flaking off dead skin and dirt. "We made quick work of the guards thanks to Dr. Hardstein and carted the gold off into the woods."

"We also burned their tents," said the first as if eager to please. "So you're all squared away with Sarvis," he boasted placing his fists on his thin hips and bringing his back up straight in a heroic pose that lost all of it's honor in his dead eyes but none of it's charm.

"And why would you show me such a kindness?" Vevian inquired. She didn't know these men from a hole in the wall yet they had completed her task out of the kindness of their hearts? Unlikely.

"It's just the proper thing to do," said the first shuffling his feet and hold his hands behind his back in a nervous and submissive posture. "Help a pretty lady in need."

Vevian scoffed lightly and put her hands on her hips now. "While I am grateful for your assistance I've no need for male companionship in my current state, as I'm sure you've no need of a woman." she said harshly gesturing below his waist. Pigs, every last one of them. Could men think of nothing else?

The second man let a devilish grin spread across his face, his black teeth showing slightly. "Old habits die hard I guess." he said as his eyes pulsed lightly.

"Oh ha ha," Vevian mocked. "Again, gentlemen, and I use the term very lightly; Thank you for your assistance. Good day." Vevian made to turn but the jawless one, the one they had called Dr. Hardstein, reached out and grasped her hand and patted it lightly. She took her furious gaze from his hand on hers up into his eyes and her anger softened. She saw his apology and his kindness in his eyes. She understood now why they had helped, he had convinced them.

Vevian gave the man a thankful nod and he let her hand go lightly his relief showing it's self in his glowing eyes. There was yet a spark of humanity left somewhere in the Forsaken and it heartened her.

She looked up at the other two men and asked, "Which way to Brill?"

They looked over their shoulders at the way she had come from and she sighed heavily. She'd need to backtrack, wonderful. She strode quickly past the three men and made her way back along the road from where she had come, looking back only once to see Dr. Hardstein standing alone on the road looking after her.

The road to Brill was easy going considering it was relatively flat and she no longer grew tired. She kept an even pace towards Brill and was only met again once along the road.

She'd heard the cart coming from behind her and had moved off to the side to allow it to pass. She had to stop a gasp as the creatures pulling the cart came even with her. They were horses but dead and reanimated like everything else in this cursed land. They had been twisted into ghastly caricatures of their former selves. Grinning bone heads stripped clean of flesh stared at her with empty sockets that flickered with dim blue ghost lights. The harnesses were placed atop their shoulders and leather straps with rusted buckles wrapped around their rib cages to hold it in place. Their hooves steamed as they touched the ground and the earth was left slightly charred in their wake. The woman atop the wagon didn't look any better. Her eyes were completely bandaged over and her head was missing large patches of hair exposing a cracking skull underneath.

As the horses passed Vevian the one nearest her shook it's thin wiry mane and let out a ghostly whinny. The driver raised her head lightly and sniffed the air and smiled revealing her warped yellow teeth.

"Where are you headed stranger." the woman said not looking at Vevian. She had smelled Vevian out.

Vevian paused only a moment and the woman grinned a little wider before Vevian said, "I'm headed to Brill."

"Oooh..." the woman sighed as she rustled over on the wagon's bench and tapped the wood beside her with a skeletal palm and said, "That's where I'm going too, fancy that!" Her smile was lighter now on her face but still strong in her voice.

"I'll ride in the back," Vevian said uneasily.

"I doubt that," snickered the woman and Vevian slowed her pace to get a look at her cargo. The cart was filled with dead bodies. Their milky sightless eyes gazed in all directions like hideous sentinels. Vevian didn't have to fight the urge to gag but she also didn't want to willingly enter another pile of bodies. It was best to ride up front.

Vevian hurried her pace forward, climbing the side of the wagon to sit next to the blind woman which earned her a another knowing grin and flash of yellow teeth.

They sat in silence as the undead horses pulled them steadily towards Brill through the fog that persisted through the day until noon. The sky quickly darkened and then it began to rain, the puddles of muddy water simmering lightly with each step of the horses.

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Brill was larger than Deathknell by far but was populated by roughly the same number of citizens. The town square consisted of the town hall, an inn named "Gallows' End," and a moss caked fountain. All the other buildings surround the square were boarded up and their use indeterminate. The empty streets rang with the clangs of metals and crackling wind from the bellows of the armory. While plagued animals wandered the forests and darkened hills, there was not one sign of life besides the Forsaken in the town, every last animal large and small had been eradicated.

The largest single structure in the town lay outside the town, the graveyard. Brill was where the Lich King's plague had first been released by Kel'Thuzad and his his aptly named Cult of the Damned, killing the town. The large graveyard had been built after the fact by the last remnants of Lordaeron in an attempt to honor their dead. The graveyard was stuffed to capacity. Young and old buried in neat lines near the beginning which gave way to a jumbled clusters of mass graves marked with family names around the middle and only hastily dug shallow graves near the end.

The landscape reflected the history of the land, scared with fires and vast untended fields of weeds and refuse. Spindly trees clutched at the earth, blackened with soot and corruption giving way to thorny undergrowth and jagged rocks. The land had past on with it's tenders all those years ago.

Though some of it's former tenders still remained, their attentions were turned to a much darker purpose, ridding their land of the living. The Forsaken of Brill worked tirelessly to eradicate the last remnant of the Scarlet Crusade to the north and defend the borders of the Forsaken kingdom to the south. The apothecary did his part by finding the most vile and dark things he could in the broken wilderness and extracting their essences to concoct devastating mockeries of the plague that had killed them. The Deathguards mercilessly hunted the living as they attempted to find food in the blighted woods, killing most but capturing the unlucky few for the apothecaries to test their poisons on.

The horses' hooves clopped loudly on the cobble stone streets and Vevian thanked the blind woman and jumped off at the graveyard. A morbid curiosity filled her and she wandered between the tombstones dragging the nails across their rough hewn forms. Should she look for her family and seek confirmation of their deaths? She had assumed them dead but they might have survived, her father was a strong and brave man. They could have made it. Hope burned in her like a bitter sweet flame as she scanned the names on the graves.

She trotted quickly between each tombstone and grew encouraged by the lack of familiar names. She strode quickly through the rest of the neatly lined graves and began looking through the larger ones encouraged. She almost ran now, her curiosity getting the better of her and she furiously scoured the graveyard for her family. They weren't here! Did that mean they were alive or that they had simply died elsewhere? Vevian didn't know but it was encouraging. Elation grew in her. Her family was alive, she knew it!

"Looking for someone in particular?" came a slow and cold voice form behind her.

She turned around to find a man with one arm and a staff peering at her though his milky white eyes from behind half moon spectacles, his pale face void of emotion.

"Yes actually," Vevian said. "Do you know if the Fairfield's survived?" she questioned hopefully.

The man heard the hope in her voice and grimaced. "Hope is a foul thing miss," he said simply and made his way over towards a small cabin that shouldered the graveyard. Vevian followed him up to the threshold and he held up a hand to tell her to wait and ducked into the small building. He came out moments later with an enormous tomb, papers and cloth strips sticking out from all over the sides. "Let's see if we can't rid you of your ailment," he mocked lightly.

Vevian's face tightened, how dare he hope her family was dead. He dropped down on his rump and she glowered at him as he scanned the pages, flipping back and forth between sections while reading the illegible writing on the strips of cloth. His finger suddenly came to rest on a small list of names and his face lit in a cruel smile showing all of his startling perfect white teeth.

"Oh my, it seems to be bad news, I do so love to give bad news," he drawled the smile reaching his eyes. This man was genuinely happy to crush the last hope she'd had for her family, she was very close to showing this man his final death. "It seems they died of the plague, how odd. Considering they worked the lands where the tainted grains were first discovered, what are the odds of that do you reckon?" he tittered and Vevian brought her foot up and kicked his head off his shoulders.

"OY!" shouted the man from the tombstone where his head came to rest his body getting up to one knee before stumbling forward and landing in a sprawl. "That was totally uncalled for Miss!" he shouted, it seems he found nothing wrong with what he had done.

Vevian looked directly into his eyes and almost growled "Speak again, bastard, and I will make sure you're last words are you pleading for your second death." Her eyes weren't merely glowing anymore, they appeared to be on fire as the radiant magic she was unconsciously pulling in drifted out of the ghost lights of her soul.

The man seemed sufficiently cowled and Vevian turned bringing her arms about herself. She wanted to be done with this, her unlife. It was far to painful to give up her first one. This one only seemed to hurt and nothing good would come of it.

She moved out of the graveyard leaving the foul man to sort out his decapitation situation. She walked along the stone street alone, rain falling lightly to darken her robes to black, her still smoking eyes the only definable part of her. She heard a wagon then, moving far faster than the one she had taken and turned to see four undead horses almost galloping along the road towards her, their hooves kicking up sparks and glowing orange with heat. She quickly moved towards the building on either side in an attempt to prevent being run down.

The horses came closer and she could here a voice screaming. She couldn't make out what it was saying but it sounded desperate. The horses grew closer, their hooves like thunder on the stone street drowning out the shouts emanating from the wagon they ushered. Vevian turn to watch them pass and saw a large metal cage in the back with a person inside. They were clinging to the bars like an animal, throwing their arms out trying to grasp anything close enough. The horses came even with Vevian and she turned with the wagon to catch a glimpse of it's captive. She locked eyes with Mordinea and for a breathless moment in time they saw each other. Mordinea's face smoothed in recognition and reached for Vevian and she unconsciously reached towards Mordinea as well. Mordinea's face contorted in fear then and she shouted at Vevian when the horses tore by.

"Help me! I don't want to forget again!" She shook at her cage wildly, lunging at it with her teeth. "They're going to take away all my friends!" Her voice was a wail of sorrow and frustration as the horses pulled her away to the center of town.

Vevian stood too shocked to do anything for a moment and then broke out in a run after Mordinea. She had to help her.

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Author's Note: Longer chapters is something I hear a lot from people I ask to look at this story and also from this site as well. Some chapters will be short because they contain very significant moments that I want to isolate but I attempt to provide as much material as possible. This was originally the first half of a chapter but it is now it's own chapter. Second half is next if you didn't already guess that. Also, Thank you for your positive reviews, I'm happy to hear you're enjoying reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it.


	12. Chapter 11: Shattered Minds

**Shattered Minds**

Mordinea sank back into her cage as she lost sight of Vevian over the horizon. She wouldn't be able to rescue her, not when her tormentor was her savior. They'd tear her memories away from her fragile mind again and she would be left with no one again, left to wander until they needed her. She could no longer remember her original name or the one they'd given her after they had wiped her memories the last time or the time before that and so on. She'd reinvented herself so many times she no longer truly knew who she was. Names, faces and events lay disconnected in her mind and she could not make sense of them. The information was there, just broken into pieces. Like a puzzle she thought and brought her knees up and cackled into her leather clad legs.

The wagon shook her against the bars of her cage as it made its hasty way towards the center of Brill. Mordinea fell over and lay still on her side against the dirty floor of her prison when the wagon came to a rattling halt. Her eyes fell to the floor and stayed there as the driver and his guard came to glance at their cargo. They seemed to think her broken and they shrugged to each other and went into the Gallows' End leaving her huddled in the cage.

When she felt them leave she scrambled up and dug at the bars of her cage to look for a lock, a hinge, anything; there were none. She ran her cold hands along the metal of the floor looking for a seam and found nothing. It was as if they had forged the cage around her when they had knocked her out. She hissed lightly and lay down on her back bringing her feet up against the bars and her hands above her head. She pushed against her prison and it creaked lightly. She could break it this way she thought and went to push again when a sudden torrent of pain took her. The cage glowed suddenly and a torrent of fie flew through her muscles. She drew into herself gritting her teeth against the pain. The surge of agony stopped and the cage dimmed again. They had cursed the cage as well; apparently they were serious about keeping her locked up this time.

Mordinea slumped roughly back against the cage and it gave a twinge of light before darkened again. She growled bitterly at the cage and closed her eyes, resigned to her fate. She'd forget everyone again even her new friend. She had tricked the mage into taking her along on whatever menial task Sarvis had given her. Mordinea grew bored often and had found the young mage infinitely entertaining with her serious demeanor and pain filled eyes. The woman didn't know what to do and had no one left, just like Mordinea. There was something appealing about her quiet confidence and sharp temper that Mordinea could not quite put her finger on it. She supposed that Vevian reminded her of someone although of whom she had no idea.

Vevian hurried along the darkened streets, splashing though puddles and slipping to catch her balance occasionally. Mordinea had said they were going to take her friends away, whatever that meant. Though Vevian could not often understand the woman it was clear she was in distress, or at least thought she was and she had resolved to help her.

She rounded a blackened and burnt out building and skidded to a halt, there was the wagon. It sat in the main square of the town next to the gritty fountain and Vevian could see the cage sitting in the back. She slowed her pace and walked towards the fountain aware of eyes on her from the darkened slits of the grimy boarded windows surround the street.

She arrived at the square and glanced past the wagon towards the only lit structure in what seemed like the entire town. It was a squat two story building with graying windows that shone out with flickering candle light and the distinct noise of a bar came from within. This was the most 'alive' building Vevian had seen since her resurrection and she was intrigued. "Light and warmth, in my unlife? Oh no thank you, I'll have the gloom and despair special," she thought bitterly as she neared the wagon's cargo, her head low and her hood up to hide her face.

She climbed the back wheel of the wagon to get a better look inside and saw Mordinea slouched in the cage. She appeared to be asleep and her eyes glowed from behind her eyelids giving them an ethereal look.

"Mordinea," Vevian hissed in a whisper. Mordinea's eyes flew open and they glowed brighter as she skittered away from Vevian knocking against the cage.

"Stay away," she shouted and Vevian winced, this woman had no sense of subterfuge. "I'm not going back!"

Vevian pulled her hood back and said "It's me Vevian, now lower your voice before you bring the whole world down on us."

Mordinea blinked, recognizing Vevian and pulled herself up into a crouch as she slid closer to her.

"You came for me?" Mordinea asked, relief and sadness mixed in her voice. Why would Vevian come? There was nothing she could do for her.

"Of course I came, you're the only person I know who's still relatively alive and you're in a cage screaming about forgetting your friends," Vevian said. "I don't really have a lot of options."

Mordinea reached out, quick as thought and grabbed Vevian's robe to pull her all the way into the wagon and drag her against the cage with a startling amount of force. Her other arm came out and wrapped around Vevian and squeezed her painfully against the bars, crushing her. Vevian gasped and tried to pull away but Mordinea was far stronger than her especially in this position.

"I missed you," Mordinea sobbed as she buried her face against the bars and Vevian's back gave a sickening crack against the force. The cage glowed and Vevian felt a sharp pain start to form in her center.

"Mordinea, stop!" Vevian gasped, she couldn't breathe. Mordinea was crushing her with her "hug".

Mordinea let go and dropped against the floor of the cage as Vevian gasped against the side of the wagon.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Vevian hissed reaching to touch her back. She didn't think anything was broken but then again would she feel it if it was?

"I… I'm sorry. I, forget sometimes," Mordinea muttered sitting back and dropping her hands in her lap in that slack submissive posture Vevian had seen her take before. This was getting bad.

"It's alright," Vevian said. She didn't want Mordinea to lose her mind like she had in the woods.

"No, it's not," Mordinea said simply and looked up into Vevian's eyes. "They're going to make me forget again."

"Who is going to make you forget what?" Vevian said; she was quite done with this cryptic nonsense.

"The man in the dungeon, he's going to make me forget who I am again. He's going to make me forget all my friends and leave me alone." Mordinea almost sobbed. Her face was like that of a child told they could never see their pet again, because it was dead.

"Why would he do that?" Vevian pried gently, Mordinea seemed lucid if not totally sane at the moment and she wanted to get all the information she could.

"Because they all think I'm crazy!" Mordinea shouted her brow furrowing and her hands clenching into fists. "I'm not crazy but they won't believe me!"

"I believe you," Vevian said raising her hands and gesturing for Mordinea to lower her voice. "I believe you. I'll get you out of this cage, how do I open it."

"You don't, it's been sealed with magic," Mordinea almost pouted crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You might as well go; it's not as if I'm not going to remember you tomorrow anyway darling."

Vevian frowned, she could leave her here, but she wouldn't forget and she'd have to live with the knowledge Mordinea was wandering alone without memories because of her. That did not sit right with Vevian.

"Well if someone cursed it to stay shut someone has to be able to open it." Vevian said looking the cage over. It didn't appear to be magical but that didn't mean it wasn't.

Vevian reached out and ran her sharpened fingers lightly over the metal gathering a small amount of energy from around her and letting it pulse from her hand. The cage flickered with an intense maroon light threateningly and Vevian drew her hand back. It was definitely cursed.

"This can only be opened by one person." Vevian said. "Who put you in here? We need them to get you out."

"Some hack." Mordinea said bitterly. "He needed someone to knock me out to put me in. Both of them went into the building across the square." She said gesturing towards the bar.

Vevian tapped her lips lightly with an elongated finger and puzzled over what to do. Mordinea needed help, but freeing her wouldn't be the last of it. She needed to have her mind repaired; she needed somewhere to stay and something to do in order to keep her sane for as long as possible. Freeing her was a big commitment.

"What will you do once I free you?" Vevian asked.

Mordinea looked puzzled and said "Go with you of course, what else would there be for me to do?"

"I don't even know where I'm going," Vevian said. She needed to speak with Sylvanas and find out what she was supposed to do with her unlife. As of now she had no purpose and if she was to create one it would only be self serving. That was no way to repay the Banshee Queen for her salvation.

Mordinea smiled widely and said, "I don't know where I'm going either, so we can wander around together, forever."

The infatuation in her voice made Vevian shudder; she didn't need some half crazed woman following her around.

"We need to get your mind repaired to the way it was," Vevian said flatly. "I'm not looking for a mindless servant to follow me around for the rest of my life."

Mordinea leaned closer to the bars and growled, "I am no one's servant. You assume too much mage." She almost spat the last word as if it were a curse.

Vevian dropped her eyes. That had been a foolish thing to say, Mordinea was obviously not opposed to violence and was in fact prone to it. It also seemed she was not without her ego.

"That's not what I meant," Vevian said quickly. "The bottom line is that we need to get you fixed, because I will not have you following me in your current state."

"I can't blame you," Mordinea glowered still far too close for comfort even through the cage.

Vevian shifted uneasily, this was a bad idea but what choice did she have?

"We need to get the one who put you in here to touch the cage again to open it." Vevian said getting up to a crouch and grabbing the side of the wagon. "You'll need to create a distraction for the one he's with so I can deal with the other."

"Ohh, I love plans." Mordinea smiled clapping her hands lightly. She folded her legs under herself and grabbed her knees to begin rocking side to side, her smile widening into a toothy grin filled with bad intensions.

Vevian sighed and jumped over the side of the wagon. She glanced around to make sure no one had seen here; they were alone in the town square. She made her way behind the fountain and sat on its rim, her back to wagon. She'd need to get the one who had locked the cage to touch it and then pulse enough energy through him to force the curse to unbind. Easy enough, if the man was alone. But he wasn't according to Mordinea and she'd have to dispatch of the other one first. She didn't want to kill anyone and planned on using a concussive spell to knock the men unconscious. It would be quick and clean, they would wake up with headache but not much else. Vevian slumped and wondered how many people she would have to hurt before the end.

Lundmark tapped his foot impatiently at the door of the Gallows' End. Gavin had been drinking and carrying on with his new found friends at the bar for going on two hours now while there was important business at hand. Lundmark was quite through with his companion and was looking forward to the end of their time together. They had been tasked with finding Mordinea, a crazed former assassin turned crazed wandering miscreant. The search had taken them all over the Eastern Kingdoms. She had burned down a goblin foreman's house in Stranglethorn only to be spotted jumping rope with children in Silvermoon two days later. They would arrive only to hear horror stories and odd accounts but always after the fact. How she got around so quickly was beyond Lundmark, but that was of no matter now. They had heard reports from the local Deathguards that there was someone sneaking around Deathknell trying to scare the newly risen into killing themselves, it was a classic case for her and Lundmark had knew that they would find her here.

They had caught up with her in the woods outside of Deathknell to find her sobbing and beating on a dead tree with a severed arm. She had been so occupied with her task, Gavin had been able to sneak up directly behind her and beat her into unconsciousness. They had sealed her in a cage of his design and were now hours away from delivering their quarry to Undercity. Yet Gavin insisted they celebrate her capture before the task was done. Lundmark knew no good would come of this.

"Gavin, we need to leave. I don't feel safe leaving her out there," Lundmark shouted across the bar.

The large Tauren sitting next to Gavin looked around and snorted loudly at him. "Go shove it you wrinkled prune, Gavin's busy," he rumbled before turning back to Gavin.

Lundmark gritted his few remaining teeth. Great bumbling cow thought he was tough. Gavin sat with his back to the door and gestured widely with his hands, apparently in the middle of some lengthy tale of their pursuit. That was it; Lundmark was done with this farce.

"Gavin! You get your rotting ass outside or I will tell them the story of when you captured her the first time!" Lundmark threatened, his claw of a hand pointed towards the door.

Gavin's pale face went slack and his shoulders dropped. He had been caught with his pants down the first time they'd caught her. They had heard of her beating a human child to death in Southshore, apparently she thought he was taking too many seashells off the beach. They had tricked her into a cage with a large pile of the glistening shells; she had been keen on collecting them at the time. On their way back Gavin had been redoing her restrains, alone of course, and she had turned on him. She had hung him upside from a tree and stripped him to run cackling towards the beach and swam away. They'd never told anyone they had caught her once only to lose her again but Lundmark would tell it now if Gavin did not stop his foolishness.

Gavin muttered apologies to his bar buddies and slouched towards the door. The Tauren glowered at Lundmark and he turned on heel and strode out towards the wagon his nose in the air. Never again would he sign up for volunteer duty in Undercity, they'd have to drag him out of his home to get him to leave it again.

"Ye could have just asked me to leave," Gavin grumbled behind him as they made their way towards the wagon.

"I did; you told me to sit on it," Lundmark growled not looking back.

"Oh yes," Gavin chuckled self consciously.

Lundmark frowned and looked at the cage in an old habit to make sure Mordinea was still there. He did a double take and his jaw dropped; she was gone.

"NO!" Lundmark shouted. "NO, NO, NO, NO!" he babbled as he ran to the back of the wagon. "She was just here!" he wailed in despair. Oh gods, now he would never be free of Gavin.

The air in the cage shifted as he climbed up the back of the wagon and he halted. What was wrong with the air in the cage? He drew closer and the air shifted again distorting his view through it. Confused Lundmark reached a hand through the bars and his hand met a soft resistance.

"Oh, you ARE naughty," came Mordinea's voice from the air in front of him and his already grey skin paled to a dirty white.

Mordinea melted into existence in front of him. She had been there all along but had been invisible. It explained how she had evaded them for so long. She grabbed his wrist and he looked down at it in horror. He had reached through and grabbed her left breast. Mordinea smiled coyly and brought his hand up to her mouth. She looked at him longingly with her glowing eye as she gently wrapped her lips around his fingers and sucked them lightly, teasing. Lundmark tried to pull his hand back but her lips spread in a grin around his fingers and she bit down. He stifled a scream as he began to fall back as she separated his fingers just below the second knuckle but her other hand shot out and grabbed his robes. She pulled him forward to smash against the cage and it glowed brightly as he felt the tingle of the curse start to activate.

"No, no, no," Mordinea mocked her voice a sultry whisper. Her mouth twisted into a hate filled grin and she grabbed the back of his head and smashed it against the bars. The cage brightened and Mordinea screamed as she and Lundmark fell.

Gavin, dumbstruck, reached for his sword but at that moment felt a hand press to the back of his head.

"Stop." Said a woman's voice, clear and commanding. He began to turn to smack the hand away. Before he could he sensed the air around his head suck inwards as what felt like a fist of iron slammed into his head. His feet were lifted off the ground as he lost consciousness and he fell in a tangle of limbs. His face grinding along the rough hewn stones.

Vevian looked up from the downed man. He had a dent in his skull. Perhaps she had used to much force. She shuddered and side stepped him to get to the back of the wagon. Mordinea was slouched in the cage her arms resting on her knees and she spat something over the side of the wagon. The other man was leaning unconscious on the outside of the cage and Vevian grimaced. His face was complete smashed in.

"Did you kill him?" Vevian asked.

"No, but he molested me," Mordinea chuckled as she wiped blackened sludge from her lips.

Vevian stared at her and back to the man deciding she didn't really want to know. She reached down and placed on of his hand in the bars of the cage. She held the other in her hand and pulled energy though herself and sent it through the unconscious man. The cage glowed and seemed to droop as the bars thinned and fizzled away to nothing around Mordinea.

Mordinea stood and pushed through what remained of the shimmering sparks the cage had become to jump down off the back of the wagon. She turned and grabbed the leg of the man and pulled him roughly out of the wagon as well. He dropped into a slump over her shoulder and she hefted him up.

"I never want to see your face again," Mordinea stated clearly to the man and lifted him quickly up to draw back and drop him, slamming her knee into his face. He let out a gurgle and Mordinea's eye grew frantic as she grabbed the back of his already mangled head and drove her knee into again. The man fell and thin rivets of congealed blood oozed from his mangled and cavernous face. Mordinea's eyes grew into slits and she drew up her heel, stomping the dead man's face into a unrecognizable pile of broken bone and blackening gunk.

"Gods preserve us," Vevian whispered. What had she done? This woman was just going to keep killing people and it would be her fault.

Mordinea dropped to her knees and let out a gurgling moan. She reached down and pushed the man's shoulder. His body slumped over and her face grew long.

"Wake up," Mordinea sobbed. "Wake up! I'm sorry I didn't mean it!" she wailed grabbing handfuls of the remains of his head and trying to stuff them back together on his shoulders. She turned to Vevian her face the picture of confusion and sorrow. "Help me," she moaned and dropped her head into her slime covered hands smearing her face with filth.

Vevian reached down hesitantly to touch Mordinea's shoulder. This woman needed help and Vevian had let her go. She was her responsibility now.

"Let's go," Vevian said quietly. "Someone will be by soon."

Mordinea shuddered as Vevian stooped down to pick her up. They had to get to Undercity. Sylvanas could fix this.


End file.
